Life's Tough Without Fur
by MakoFluffRae
Summary: A Fluff without fur, who just happens to be named after the greatest villian of all time...and also bears a strange resemblance. Not your average FFVII fanfic! Completely fluffy and silly. Based partly on roleplays and imaginary friends.
1. It's not Blue! Or Cactuarbarfgreen!

I'm going to write a story! That's what I told Rae. "I'm crazy!" is what she said, but I'm still not sure if she was talking about her or me. That happens a lot. Anyway, I finally have a chance to tell my story and only my story and it will mostly or all be written by ME. It's a fun story, so you probably won't be bored. If you are then it's your fault...HA!

I guess I should start from the start, since that's where most stories start...right? So. The beginning...? I was born on Round (I like calling it Knights of Round, or KOR) Island to the Fluffs Bof and Boeff. They're good parents. Oh, I guess I better explain Fluffs. It's amazing how few people know what a Fluff is! I mean, doesn't the name speak for itself? They're fluffy canine-ish things that live in families and such. They don't really classify as monsters since most monsters you run into in the average random battle can't talk and don't really have a life outside of attacking unsuspecting (or suspecting) travelers! Fluffs are different because they are usually smart and usually harmless and usually stay together in squishy cuddly warm fuzzy family group-type-things. So yeah! I was born into a happy happy little Fluff-family. I was the last in the litter, and sort of different. Nobody ever told me I'm adopted or anything, they always said my different-ness was because of some scariness involved with certain scientists earlier along in the family line, but I don't really know! All I know is that while my siblings got all the normal fur colors and eye shapes and stuff, I got stuck with my mom's silver hair and some catty blue eyes from who-knows-where...and NO FUR! That really stung. Have you noticed it's harder to play rough with other fluffy things if you don't have fur to protect you? Yeah, I got a lot of scratches! And for some reason I couldn't really move the same way the other Fluffs could either. I mean, they often walked on two legs but when they let it all loose and went back to four I just couldn't do it nearly as well! It was kind of frustrating! But I was happy most of the time. Living with Fluffs makes it kind of hard to be the sad kind of thing. Eating pasta for most meals every day helps too!

My two older brothers and older sister were named Reno, Cait Sith, and Yuffie. My parents are totally obsessed with the Meteor incident from before I was born, so that's why they gave us all names from the main heroes...except for me. Reno is Reno because he got red fur from my dad's side- we have a bit of Nanaki's blood in there, it's so cool! Cait Sith was born black and white, and Yuffie was all black. Mom wanted to name her Vincent anyway, because he's her favorite out of the heroes, but my dad decided it'd probably be better if we gave her a girls' name. Yuffie fits her better anyway! I was named Sephiroth because of my uncanny resemblance to him- later I'd find that _some_ people think I could be his reincarnation or something. Kind of weird, isn't it?

So I guess now that you have the little bit of background you need to understand things, I should stop explaining everything and make things more interesting by telling the story like a story! I promised it wouldn't be boring, so I better stick to that. After all, mom always said, promises are promises and they're never anything else!

**

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**

Birthdays in my family are a funny thing. We all have our birthday on the same day because we were born in the same litter, and since Round Island is up in the very north-east corner of the map, and since all of us little Fluffs had our birthdays on December 31st, it was usually pretty darn chilly. At this time of the year I always begin to feel a little lonely. Another thing about growing up without fur is that while all the rest of your family is out romping in the snow without hardly a care for the coldness, you're huddling inside the home cave/hut/burrow shivering under layers of blankets thinking of all the fun things you could be doing if only you had fur and weren't so freezing cold! So naturally those memories still come back to me even now, when I live without having to share my birthday with the members of my house, when I live in a place where it's almost always warm and sunny. Nobody knows I feel like that, probably, since I'm usually - as Rae puts it - "abominably cheerful", at all times. It's a habit I picked up from the other Fluffs. "Cheerfulness is always polite, except for when someone's dead, injured, or very angry, and even then there are exceptions!" - That's another thing my mom would always say.

I woke up on my 10th birthday feeling tired and very cold, and not very happy. I tried to ignore that I was awake and pretend I wasn't by staring at the inside of the blankets. I'd thrown them over my head to keep my face from freezing. And I thought about how I was now a two-digit number Fluff. Sort of. How would things be different in the next five years? I said next five, because I didn't dare even think about my 15th (or was it 16th?) birthday, the day when I'd become eligible and pressured and all that fun stuff, all toward one thing- getting a mate. Yeah, Fluffs find their partners pretty young. I shivered and squished into the blankets more. I could hear my brothers and sister outside. Waa! I wanted to go play with them. But I was cold and in a mood that was all too common to me back then. And it didn't help when a red-furred someone grabbed my ear and tried to drag me out of my nest.

"Owww ow ow ow!" I whimpered and tried to curl back up in my blankets, but Reno's never been put off by little things like pity for the furless. He laughed.

"Come on Seph, it's not THAT cold. Are you gonna spend all winter in there?" He let go of my ear and lowered his head to peer into the darkness of my blanket-cave.

"...Yes," I pouted.

"But...that's stupid!" He tried to grab my ear again.

"Nooo!" I wiggled farther back into the blankets so that he couldn't see me, and could barely hear me. "I don't wanna come out."

"But they all sent me to get you! Anyway, you can't spend our birthday stuck in here. That's just bad manners!"

Oh no. Bad manners. I sniffled. They always got me with that one...I supposedly had bad manners whenever I got in moods like this. I guess it probably was pretty unusual for a Fluff to not want to celebrate his own birthday, even if he did have to share it with three other hyper Fluffs, but then, I was unusual.

I poked my head out slowly and shivered. "But it's cooold!"

Reno wagged his tail. Swishy! "Well dress warm then!"

I shook my head slowly. "Even if I put on everything I had, I'd STILL-"

Reno growled playfully. "Well, do it anyway. I think half the reason you're cold is because you're not moving around! Anyway, they won't let me come back and play unless I bring you with me. So you better hurry."

...there it was again! Okay, now I had to get up. If nothing else, I must've inherited some of my mom's politeness, because I couldn't stand it when they did that- made it so that I had to do something in order for them to continue having fun. I whined and sat up and started digging for my clothes. Reno sat and watched me with his tail flicking around like a fly on an overdose of sugar and in the last twitches of death. I put on every piece of clothing that I could, and even though I was still pretty cold and needed some serious fashion help (have you ever seen somebody wearing everything they have? It's ridiculously hilarious!) I started toward the door, trying to drag a brush through my hair at the same time.

Reno blinked. "Why the heck do you keep your hair so long, Seph?" He thought it was the funniest thing.

I scowled. I didn't want to admit that the entire reason I kept my hair so long was I felt that perhaps what it lacked in quantity I could make up for in length. I especially paid special attention to keep my bangs the way they are. I guess they sort of remind me of...dog ears? You know...the kind that isn't hanging down all the way...they stand up and then halfway they fold down over themselves. I guess my mind works funny that way. But I could barely stand to let my mom trim it once a month, much less cut it all off.

"Because I like it that way!" I said. "So what are you guys playing?"

"Tag, duh. Anyway, you need something fast to keep you moving so you don't turn blue like your hair."

"It's not blue!" I whined. "It's SILVER."

They never teased mom about _her_ hair, and it's the same as mine! It seriously didn't make any sense. They seemed to come up with a new outrageous color every month. Last month it was "cactuar-barf-green". How in the world do you get that out of silver?

"Whatever. Anyway-" He jumped at me. "You're it!"

"AAH! HEY!" I jumped to my feet and ran after Reno, who had stolen my brush and (I felt) probably a few strands of my hair too. "Come back! NOO!"

Cait Sith and Yuffie shrieked and ran around randomly. I could've caught them a bajillion times if I wanted to but my catty eyes were stuck on my brush. I blazed a trail through the snow and caught up to Reno on the edge of the shore, where he whirled around and grinned at me around my brush. I stared at it as my furious run sadly trickled away into a wheezy stumble. I panted.

"Renooo...give it baack! What if you lose it? I won't be able to brush my hair!"

"I'm not gonna lose it...you just gotta get it from me, or else you're still it."

"WHA? But I could just go tag Yuf-"

"Nope! You gotta get the brush!"

"That's not fair!"

"Yeah it is, you need practice running anyway."

I sure felt picked on. There was Reno with my brush and with all four paws perfectly capable of running, whereas I only had two. What's fair about that? But I still figured I should try, since that brush was pretty important- it had taken mom a while to have it shipped in from the mainland- the post chocobo kept getting lost. Who knew how much longer it'd take to get a new one?

So I pounced forward with a "RAWR" that was supposed to sound threatening but just sort of poofed away once I hit the snow. I stood up and shook it off my face and ran after Reno, who was on his way back toward Cait Sith and Yuffie. They'd been standing still while watching our argument, but now they shrieked and returned to their aimless running around. It would have been funny to watch if I wasn't so obsessed with getting my brush back. I chased Reno all the way to the OTHER side of the island, and there we replayed the confrontation.

"Give it baack!"

I came toward him slowly this time, moving in startled jerks to one side or the other whenever Reno put a paw forward to try and run around me. I backed him up to the very edge, where the ice from the ocean had formed. Mom always told us to stay off the ice, and dad seconded it strongly. But here again Reno wasn't put off, and stepped backward onto the ice, grinning around my brush all the while.

"Hey! You can't go on there, Mom and Dad said to stay off the ice!" I wailed desperately.

Reno just kept backing up. "Come get me," he teased.

"Reno! You can't go on there!" I repeated stupidly. "Get off!"

"Oh come on Seph! The ice is thick! What cou-"

_CRACK_

I stared dumbly. What the...Reno just disappeared!

_Splash._

"Ack! Help!"

Reno, soaked to the skin, was trying to claw his way out of the water. I just stared stupidly, then yelled.

"AAH! Reno fell in, guys! He fell in! AAH!"

Obviously, I'd never been in a crisis before. There aren't many on KOR Island.

Sadly, Cait Sith and Yuffie were even more ill prepared than I. They promptly started running around more frantically than ever, screaming their heads off.

I got jerked out of my stupidity really quickly when Reno disappeared, then reappeared and yelled at me to stop standing there and help him. So I ran forward and lay down on the ice and reached for him, grabbing his front paws, and trying to pull him backward. Slowly. Reno was really panicking and I think I got more scratches in those few minutes than I had all week. He pretty much dug his claws into my arms.

I managed to pull him up enough that I fell backward, still holding onto him, and found myself crashing through another crack in the ice, and what was worse, with a 10-year-old Fluff on top of me. Imagine my panic!

Luckily, my back actually touched bottom, since I'd managed to drag us close enough to shore that the water was shallow. Reno jumped off after about 10 seconds that seemed like forever and I clawed my way out like a drowned rat, miserably cold and seriously angry.

"Reno! YOU LOST IT! And you almost got both of us dead! ARGH!" I yelled, then broke down crying.

Cait Sith had luckily had enough sense to run to our parents, and Reno and I were quickly dragged inside by the scruffs of our necks and set dangerously close to a hastily built and very smoky fire in the middle of the cave.

I was just thinking about how this was the worst birthday ever and how it couldn't get any worse, when dad announced that we were both grounded for a month, and Reno got to help pay for a new brush and some new clothes. It was the best thing that ever happened to me in December! Hooray! A whole month of nothing but sleeping curled up in my blanky-nest! This was turning out better than I'd hoped.

I tried to look suitably miserable, but as mom always said, cheerfulness is polite in almost all situations. So I guess my parents didn't mind when I cracked a huge grin every five seconds. Reno kind of did, but he still managed to apologize to everyone properly.

"Sorry mom, dad. I know I wasn't supposed to go on the ice. Sorry for stealing your brush, Seph."

"'sokay," I said, and got attacked by another random grin. "Sorry for not coming out to play earlier."

Mom beamed in the way that meant she believed everything was all better. "Now, once you're both dried off and warm, we'll have dinner and open presents!"

Cait Sith and Yuffie instantly set off in an off-key chorus of "Yay, Presents, Yay!", a birthday song they'd made up two years before and which was quickly becoming a tradition among our family and even others, too. Yeah...did I mention there were other Fluff families living on Round Island? There were. We were all pretty close too, being next-door neighbors and all. Luckily, none of the other Fluff families had litters in December, so the singing of the song on the 31st was limited to our family, which spared a lot of innocent ears from going deaf.

For the sake of the story, I guess I better write down the song here.

**

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**

Yay, presents, yay! It's a birthday today!

We're all in this together and we all think it's okay!

Yay, we all are older now and fluffier by far!

So let's open up the presents, and see what they are!

Yay, presents, yay! It's a birthday today!

Let's open up those birthday cards and see just what they say!

Yay, we've got the wrapping paper crinkled all around

So open up the box now, and see what we've found!

**

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**

Yeah, that's two verses...they periodically come up with more and add them, but I figure I'll spare you so you won't have to get up and run off, screaming, giggling, or crying, whichever it may be.

Actually, it grows on you after a while.

No, really.

It took me and Reno a while to dry off, so mom got the main brunt of the singing, since Cait Sith and Yuffie decided to help her make the birthday spaghetti. Meanwhile, I sat in awestruck jealousy, watching Reno lick himself to try and dry off faster. Ohhh I wished it were that easy for me.

Finally, we were both dry (though I was still cold) and were allowed to sit down and eat. I wished the spaghetti sauce was hotter, just for the sake of the possibility of it warming me up a little, maybe, from the inside?

Somehow it didn't work, even though I burnt my tongue on a meatball.

Don't get the wrong idea. My family isn't really all that unbearable. Just on birthdays, and that's only because of me. I really love mom's spaghetti...and her fettucini is the best on the island, even back then! Reno does what he does I think because he realized how anti-social I was back then and wanted to kick it out of me. Cait Sith and Yuffie are just average Fluffs, really...maybe one or two more tablespoons of sugar in their bloodstream, that's all. Dad's great too. I love him still for grounding me that day!

So yeah, it's really a great family. I kind of miss them sometimes.

**

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**

"YAY PRESENTS YAY!" Yuffie began, but Dad cut her off.

"Today is very special!" He began. We all nodded our furry little heads. "And because you are all now becoming two-digit Fluffs, you're going to start learning how to be adults!"

"YAY!" Yuffie said again. Reno blinked and swooshed his tail. Cait Sith bounced a little in his seat. I yawned.

"But before your mother and I give you your presents, we'll let you go get the ones you have for each other, if there are any."

Hint hint! By tradition, it wasn't required for the members of the litter to give presents to each other on the birthday, but it often happened anyway. I felt a teensy weensy poke of guilt that I hadn't thought to get anything, but decided not to let it bother me, since nobody but Yuffie was getting up anyway. She came back and gave us each a package. Mine was squishy. I had no idea what the heck it could be. I sniffed it and poked it and shook it while everyone else ripped the wrapping off theirs. Reno got a headdress thing sort of like uncle Nanaki's. He ran around like a madfluff with it on his head, totally stoked that he got to look even more like our great relative. Cait sith got a stuffed moogle toy. I stared at the stripey wrapping paper that held mine. I poked it again, then ripped it open.

GASP!

I stared. I seriously stared. I didn't even dare to touch it. Then I hugged it and started crying and trying to glomp Yuffie at the same time.

"Oh my gosh! You're the best sister EVER!" I sniffled, rubbing my head against her shoulder. She giggled hyperly.

I pulled back and held it out at arms length to look at it. It was possibly the most beautiful thing I'd EVER seen. A silver fur coat. I suddenly got smacked with a thought.

"It's not...REAL fur...is it?" I asked timidly.

"..." Yuffie fell out of her chair doubled over with giggles. "S-silly!" she gasped. "Of course not!"

I hid under the table, still sniffling my tears of joy but also feeling pretty silly.

Cait sith pulled me out by my hair. "Put it on, gosh!" he said.

I clung to it and stared at it and finally put it on. There was a few seconds of clapping from the others while I sat there blinking, and then I gasped in awe.

"Hey! It makes me warm!"

Yuffie fell out of her chair again.

**

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**

A few minutes later, I was hugging myself and beaming while mom and dad brought in their presents. Each gift was very tube-shaped. I just grinned to myself and every few minutes burst out in "Oh my gosh you're the coolest sister ever, I'm so getting you something next year!" at Yuffie, which made her laugh. This last time Reno put a paw on my head.

"Alright alright, we can tell you're excited!"

I ducked a little until Reno put his paw back where it was supposed to be.

I felt very very silly and giddy! It was great! And I wasn't all that cold either. Actually, I decided this must be the best birthday I'd ever had. Yep. I'd mark it on my calendar later.

Dad had finished passing out the tubes and stood up on his chair to give a little speech. We all restrained our claws from their paper-ripping desires and listened with wide eyes.

"Alright. We decided that our presents for you this year should be something that would inspire you for years to come. That's why we've picked these. I know in some cases it may be a little strange, but there are things you can learn from each of these, so take good care of them!"

He sat down, and a billion little shreds of paper got tossed into the air and we all carefully unrolled the posters in the tubes.

"OHHH!" was the main thing everybody said when they looked at theirs. Our parents had gotten us a poster of each of our namesakes. I blinked at the strange outfit and fiendishly calm look on the subject of mine. Other than his disturbing look and black/leather outfit, he did in fact look remarkably like I could look once I'd grown to my full height. I blinked and blinked, very uncertainly. But wasn't Sephiroth a villain? What was I supposed to learn from him? But whatever, I thought the present remarkably cool and grinned a thanks at my parents, then went around looking at the ones my brothers and sister had.

Reno was laughing at his. "He looks like a goofball! Wasn't he a Turk, mom?"

Mom nodded. "And still is, I believe, though that picture was taken about a decade ago."

Reno snickered. "Maybe I should've just gone with a Nanaki poster, huh?"

"We decided on namesakes so that's what it is!" Dad said.

"Okay, okay!"

Yuffie ooed and aaed, stretching out her poster on the floor and lying on her belly to look at it. "She's so cool! A ninja! Wee!"

I looked over her shoulder. "...how does she hold up that shuriken?" I wondered. "She's so little and it's so big!"

Yuffie beamed. "That's why she's so cool!"

Cait Sith was hugging his stuffed moogle and peering curiously at the poster. "...so which one's Cait Sith? The cat thing or the moogle thing?"

Dad pointed at the cat thing. "That part rides on the stuffed moogle, but it's not really alive. It's controlled by a man named Reeve, who was also a Turk.

Cait Sith blinked. "...waiiit. So that means I was named after a TOY?"

Dad chucked. "Not exactly."

He still looked put out. "I always thought Cait Sith was a real person!"

"He is!" My mom hurried to reassure him. "His body's just a little robotic, that's all."

Okay, I couldn't help it. I laughed. Cait Sith got mad at me. Luckily, we didn't get far enough to ruin the posters on the floor before Dad broke it up. It was all in fun anyway.

So once we were all done hugging our parents and thanking them for the presents (and Yuffie too) I went to my corner of the cave to put up my poster. It took alot of tape, since I learned a long long time ago that you can't tack pictures up on cave walls. Even then, I was afraid the corners'd end up curling off...but whatever! It was up and it was mine and I sat on my blanky-nest and stared up at it while the others obsessed over theirs and then ran out for one last romp before bedtime.


	2. When a Fluff goes Bad

The next few months are a teensy bit blurry in my mind. Mainly they consisted of people asking "So Sephi, you gonna cut your hair short now that you got a fur coat?" and me saying "Nooo!" in various ways. I didn't know, back then, why I still couldn't bear the thought of having my hair cut short, especially now that I had my own fur coat to wear. I kept telling myself, "Hey, why not?", but every time I went to go tell mom she could finally cut my hair to a more regular length, I chickened out and ran back to my blanky-nest clutching my hair in a panic. Then I would stare up at my poster of _the_ Sephiroth and get this feeling almost like...I couldn't cut my hair because then I wouldn't be like HIM. But that didn' t make any sense, because I really wasn't like him at all! I mean, come on, I was raised by Fluffs! If I believe what they said, then I AM a Fluff. Fluffs and Sephiroths just...aren't the same.

So I basically remember spending January and February curled up comfortable and drowsily and half-consciously in my blanky-nest, even though my fur coat kept me warm enough that I was able to go out and play about once a week, by the time I was un-grounded. I could've gone more often but I preferred to stay inside. I felt like a hibernating creature.

But then spring floated in and melted the ice and the trees threw the snow off and a whole bunch of other really fun-to-describe-in-pretty-words things happened that all have to do with spring. Like flowers and stuff. I don't really know how to say it. I'm sure Rae could, but this is supposed to be my story, so I have to write it myself. The main thing I remember about that spring is that just like every spring, it had this weird smell to it...the kind of smell that's warm and drags you out of wherever you're hiding. It's really frustrating to people like me when their nose is sensitive and can catch that smell. I wanted to stay in my blanky-nest, but that smell tickled my nose again and again and even made me sneeze a few times. So finally, sniffling, I dragged myself out of my blanky-nest and out into the very very yellow sunshine that was probably half the source of the smell.

Round Island is...well, round. Circled in a mountain ridge with a forest area inside. Lots of space for caves, but the adventurers who came to KOR island never came to _our_ caves...they only had eyes for the famous one, the one that had (until they took it) the Knights of Round materia.

Actually, the smell wasn't the only thing that dragged me out of the home cave. Mom and Dad said that since we were two-digit Fluffs now, Cait Sith, Reno, Yuffie, and me, were all going to take lessons from old Teff, the wise Fluff of the island. Back then, some young Fluffs could be excited about learning from Teff, and some hated it. I had no idea. I wanted to sleep.

But I couldn't stay in bed, so it was both the smell and Teff that dragged me out. So there I was, standing out in the sunshine and watching other Fluffs run around through the trees, Fluffs from the other side of the Island who I barely knew and hadn't seen for months. I yawned and stretched and wandered around, feeling a little too warm with my fur coat on. But I didn't take it off because I wanted the other Fluffs my age to see it.

"Hmm...la la la...springy...ooh butterfly..." I mumbled to myself and yawned again, still wandering around feeling a little self-conscious with my fur coat on but not in the same way I had when I wasn't wearing it. It was funny to see the looks the other Fluffs gave me. Two boys playing tag slowed down for a sec to blink at me, then grinned and went on playing. A pink girl Fluff who was wandering around stopped to stare at me. I blinked and she looked away because everyone knew staring wasn't polite, and Fluffs are all about politeness.

I giggled silently and ran off to find out where Yuffie and the others were.

The first compliment on my coat came from Teff himself. That's where I found my siblings, they'd all gotten to the meeting-spot early. When I ran to meet them, Teff came forward, beamed and said in a creaky deep (or deep for a Fluff, that is) voice, "Why, young Sephiroth, you have certainly grown a fine adult coat this winter."

I stopped in my tracks, looking silly. "Huh?" I said, not sure what he'd actually said for a moment. "...Oh! Yeah!"

Yuffie grinned. Reno snickered. I wasn't sure if I should be embarrassed or proud. He had called it an adult coat after all. I guess that meant he thought I was more grown up than I was when he'd seen me last year. So I took it as a compliment.

"Thank you sir!" I grinned hugely.

Teff smiled and turned to talk to a tiny little yellow fluff who had just run up to ask him a question. Reno tried to ruffle my hair but I jumped out of the way. I didn't like people touching it, heh...even it if was out of affection. But I got the feeling he was teasing me too. Yuffie started bouncing up and down going "Heeheehee...hee...heehee!". Cait Sith just hugged his moogle.

I sat down on a log and looked around. Reno didn't seem to want to sit down. Yuffie had but was still bouncing, probably nervously. I didn't really feel all that nervous. Okay, maybe a little. And hot. I thought maybe I should take my coat off...but I was still glowing after what Teff had said. The other Fluffs all came in after a while and found their seats. Then I started feeling kind of claustrophobic. Wow. I never knew there were this many other Fluffs my age on the island. And alot of them were looking at me. Needless to say, I didn't get out much. No wonder my parents were so set on my going to these things, even more than the others. I definitely needed practice socializing.

I tried to hide behind Cait Sith and his moogle but that didn't keep a couple people from trying to talk to me. The first one was the little yellow fluff from before. He grinned at me, leaning way far around my brother so he could see me, and held out a paw.

"Hiya! I'm Tilo. What's your name?"

"Uhhhhh..." I said, startled.

"You're Sephiroth, right? I've heard about you."

"Uhh...y...yeah I am." I blinked, kind of nervous and wondering what exactly he'd heard.

"Well anyway, I think your coat's pretty cool, and the way you keep your hair all long like that. And your eyes are neat too!"

"..uh...thanks," I said, a little shook off by all these...interesting comments. "Who are you again?"

"Tilo, from Teff's family. He's my grandpa."

"Oh." I blinked at him. "...so that's why you're here?" I couldn't believe he was a two-digit Fluff. He was way too small.

"Oh, well, sort of. My tenth birthday was yesterday too."

"Oh." I said. Well...there went that idea! My mind was still going "No way!" at Tilo being 10 years old, but I shrugged anyway, especially when I looked at his grandpa and realized that they were both pretty small. Teff could just get away with it because he was old and wise looking.

Teff coughed and everyone looked at him. Yuffie restrained her bouncing and started tapping her foot really fast instead. It made a funny noise like a woodpecker. I hunched down in my coat and set my glowy green catty eyes on the old Fluff.

"Welcome everyone!" he said cheerfully. "It's so wonderful to see your smiling faces here in front of me. There are some of you I know and some of you I don't, but hopefully I can remedy that before the year is over. I look forward to getting to know each of you better!"

Hearing him talk about smiling faces made everyone smile, I noticed. It was funny. So I smiled too.

"I've thought all winter of what to tell you or show you for our first lesson. I decided that this year we'll start out with what I normally save for later. I will take you somewhere special."

Everybody was probably thinking "OOOH! What? WHAT?". I know I was. Teff definitely had our attention! Tilo was the only one who didn't lean forward eagerly, but he still looked a little excited when I looked. He seemed to know what was going on.

"So if you'll all stand up and follow me in a single-file line, I'll show you where we're going."

Everybody got up and got into a line. It wasn't very single-file at first, but once we started moving it spread out so only a few people were walking side-by-side. I got in somewhere between Reno and Tilo. Yuffie was behind Tilo and attacking him with lots of questions about where we were going but Tilo wouldn't really say anything. He just smiled and shook his head.

We walked through the trees and toward the cliffs and I watched the other Fluffs in the line. Reno turned around and started walking backwards so he could talk to me. I didn't notice him at first because I was in too much awe about how many of us there were, and how different they all were. I realized a while later that my family's a little different, even by Fluff standards. For one thing, most family groups keep the first letters of their children's names the same as their own, or at least try to keep the children names similar to one another. My mom and dad are a funny coincidence because they both come from families with B names and their names are very similar: Bof and Boeff. They never really said why they decided to break tradition and name us all after the main people in the Meteor legend. But maybe that was just a...different version of the tradition! Our names weren't similar because of the first letter, but because we were all related through that one story. So I guess we were different but not really that different.

"Hey Seph! What're you thinking about?"

"Huh?" I blinked. "Oh. Just wondering where we're going."

"Yeah I know! I mean...for it to be special it'd have to be off the island, wouldn't it?"

"I guess." I'd never really thought of that before. That kind of made me sad. Nowhere special on our island, huh? I guess some people thought that way. Now that I know better I'm kind of surprised nobody knew that day where we were going except Teff and Tilo. How could they not guess? But I guess I didn't guess either so I can't blame them for not guessing.

This next part I don't remember very well. I mean I remember what it felt like but the details, pretty much all of them, just aren't there. I remember we went into the cave, and you could tell we were somewhere special. Everyone went really quiet. We spread out in a circle around the place where Teff was standing, staring in a weird kind of awe at the place he was looking at. I kind of knew before he told us what it was.

"This is where the Knights of Round materia grew," he said solemnly.

We all looked at the empty spot for a long time. Teff didn't say anything while we looked at it, he just let us look and think about it. Tilo was smiling in a funny way. I think maybe he'd been there before. I looked around to see the others' reactions. Yuffie was actually not moving for once, she was standing really still and staring with big wide shining eyes at the place. Cait Sith looked solemn. Reno was watching the other people like I was. You could tell there was something special here, you really could. It took everyone a while to realize that the empty spot wasn't really empty. There was a glint of something in there, a shining something. A couple of the Fluffs pointed eagerly at it and said "oh!" in quiet voices. Teff smiled and finally spoke.

"Yes, that's right. A new materia has started growing! Which brings me to my point: why do so many Fluffs live on this island? We as a species are scattered throughout the world in tiny groups, all except for here, where we live in abundance. Why here?"

Tilo looked like he wanted to answer but was waiting to see if anybody else knew, first. I was trying to think what the reason could be. It was a good question!

When nobody said anything, either because they didn't know or they did know and were too shy to say, Teff finally broke the silence.

"We're here to protect this place. To make sure each materia can grow to its fullest each time before anyone removes it."

You could practically hear everyone's light bulbs turn on! I kind of got this weird shiver- I dunno if I was excited or scared or what. I think everyone felt the same too, but of course I couldn't be sure. I was different after all. But I think they did. Their expressions all seemed to mirror how I felt.

It's really pretty strange to see a room full of Fluffs, all who weren't smiling, all except Teff and Tilo. Kind of creepy but kind of cool too.

Teff's smile grew really big. "I'll let you all think about that while you eat your lunch. Then we'll talk."

We all just kind of stood there for a minute and then started floating off to different parts of the cave. I found Cait Sith. He's the one mom decided should be in charge of the lunch-pack thing. He's actually the oldest and probably the most responsible out of all of us, even though you wouldn't really guess it when you meet him at first. Probably because he likes stuffed animals so much and is so quiet and kind of looks like he's scared of stuff half the time and amazingly hyper the other half. But he really isn't. He just really likes his fuzzy friends. Most people actually guess that Reno's oldest, but he's only second oldest.

So we all wandered over to a corner of the cave and sat down while Cait Sith took off his backpack thing and started digging out the grub. Mom had made us some really yummy lasagna with meat sauce and a little bit of salad. I nibbled on the lettuce and looked around. Tilo was eating with his grandpa. It was interesting to see which Fluffs belonged with each other. There were alot of funny pairs, like a huge black Fluff with his fur so long it covered his eyes eating with a miniature shorthaired peachy-colored one. And they were both really hyper, obviously, since most Fluffs are. I finished up my salad and started on the lasagna. Most of my siblings only ate certain things out of their salads, since they didn't really like greens in the first place. I didn't mind them.

"Eww sephi how can you eat that spinach stuff...it's so gross!" Yuffie said, wrinkling her nose and holding up a piece.

I shrugged. "I'll eat yours too if you want."

"Please!" Everyone said and piled it in front of me. I blinked at the mound of green stuff and slowly began working my way through it, much to the slightly disgusted wonder of my brothers and sister.

"What?" I said through a mouthful of it. "It's not that bad!"

"Yegh," Reno said. "Whatever." And he took a huge bite out of his lasagna.

It took me a while to finish the spinach off and by then I was really happy to get to my lasagna. I liked spinach but I didn't like it THAT much. And I sure loved mom's lasagna.

While I was eating the spinach though, a funny thing happened. The pink girl fluff I'd seen earlier came over clutching a bowl of ramen noodles. She looked a little nervous but she grinned at us and we all looked up and Reno hastily licked a bit of sauce off his arm. Yuffie whispered, "Hey, no washing at the table!" and he shot her a look that said "Don't boss me around!" Cait Sith just hugged his moogle and kept eating his lasagna.

"Hi!" I said, trying to be friendly, once I'd swallowed another bunch of spinach.

"Um, hi!" she said, flashing a grin. "Can I sit with you guys?"

"And girl!" Yuffie said.

"Oh," the pink Fluff said. "Guys and girl. Can I? Please?"

"Sure!" Reno said quickly. I nodded. Cait Sith hugged his moogle.

"Thanks!" She sat down, started eating her ramen, then stopped and looked at my pile of spinach, which was almost gone. "Is that...spinach?"

"Yeah," I said, picking up a leaf to nibble.

"Can I have some?" she asked timidly.

Ha-ha. The others sure didn't know what to say or think or even look like. Reno looked like he'd swallowed an egg. I grinned. "Sure!"

She looked relieved. "Thanks!" She grabbed some. "I really love it and my mom never gets any for me."

"Yeah it's good isn't it!" I said, really surprised and glad there were other Fluffs beside me who liked green things. She nodded happily.

Reno reached forward and grabbed some, grinning in a weird way. "Yeah, this stuff is like, my favorite," he said, and stuck a piece in his mouth with only a second's hesitation. Yuffie looked at him like he'd lost his mind. He chewed it quickly and swallowed really hard and said. "Y-yeah..sure is good stuff..."

The pink Fluffette blinked. "...Wow, I've never met any Fluffs beside me who liked it! This is cool!"

Reno beamed. I wondered how long it'd be before he excused himself to go find something to get the taste out of his mouth so he wouldn't gag. I wondered even more why in the world he would pretend to like spinach just because the Fluffette did.

"So what's your name?" Cait Sith finally spoke up. The Fluffette looked startled.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself...how rude of me!" she looked embarrassed. "My name's Woffia."

"Nice to meet you!" Reno choked out. "Pardon me for a moment."

I laughed and watched him run over to see if anybody had a cookie or something he could wash down the spinach with. Then I waited until Cait Sith and Yuffie had introduced themselves before I had my turn.

"I'm Sephi...roth. You can just call me Sephi or Seph, everyone does," I grinned.

She tilted her head. "Sephiroth...isn't...you all have names from the Meteor legend, right? So Sephiroth was the one who called Meteor down, wasn't he?"

I nodded, not sure what I should say to that. Should I be proud of my name? Should I be ashamed? I didn't know, so all I did was nod and say "Yeah, that was him!"

She turned to each of the others. "Cait Sith was the double agent between Shinra and Cloud's party...Yuffie was the ninja from Wutai, and Reno was one of the Turks," she concluded, as if to herself, while Reno was coming back.

"Sorry, just had to go talk to a friend!" he lied, sitting down in the circle again. Woffia leaned over to eat her ramen, which was probably getting cold.

"How do you know so much about the legend?" Yuffie asked, bouncing now that the air wasn't so solemn. Woffia looked a little embarrassed again, but grinned politely.

"Well...my dad says he traveled alot during that time..he wasn't at Cosmo Canyon when Nanaki came home but he was there afterward and the others there told him all about what was going on. My mom doesn't talk about it much though. I always thought it was interesting." She chewed on her noodles thoughtfully and lapped up a little of the broth. I held out the last of the spinach to her, a couple leaves.

"You want the rest? My lasagna's getting cold."

"Oh, yes!" she said, and took it. "Thank you!"

"Sure!" I giggled.

Reno gave me a mean look. I don't know why. He sure was acting weird! Cait Sith nudged him and shook his head slowly when Reno looked at him, and Reno blinked and made a little grunt that sounded like "Fine..."

I just lowered my head and ate my lasagna quietly while Woffia finished up her ramen and the others just sat there giving each other weird looks. Most of them were in response to Reno's tail twitching in an irritated way. The others seemed to be trying to calm him down. I wondered if maybe Reno had a fleabite or something. Why else would he be acting so weird? Mom always said no scratching at the table, but he could've excused himself again...

Finally, Woffia was done, and cleared her throat. "So...you...all lived here for a long time?"

"Course!" Yuffie said. "Our great great grandparents were here, and probably their great grandparents, too..."

"Wow!" she said. "I didn't know it went that far back. I just came here last winter from the eastern continent."

Now everyone else looked amazed. "Wow...you're from a CONTINENT?"

Woffia giggled. "Yep...and lemme just say...your winters are COLD."

I immediately started nodding my head off, but the others were too amazed at her being from off the island to do anything more than stare.

"They're sooo cold!" I agreed. "I could hardly go outside before Yuffie got me this," I said, taking off my fur coat and hugging it. Ohh that felt better. Way too warm for fur...

Woffia blinked at the spectacle of a Fluff taking off its fur. I realized how weird that must've looked, even though it was probably obvious to most that the fur wasn't really mine (though it DID match my hair pretty well), since it didn't cover the rest of me, just the top. I grinned nervously. She grinned back.

"That's cool. I like your eyes too."

"Uh..I-" I started to say, then stopped, suddenly blushing. I'd never blushed before. This was weird...I didn't know then, of course, how much I'd get used to blushing later. But this was probably my first time, and I had no clue what was going on. And then Reno flicked a pebble at me.

"Ow!" I burst out, rubbing the spot on my cheek where it had hit. Then I stopped when Woffia blinked and said "Uh..thank you!"

"You okay? You get a fleabite or something?" She asked.

"Um-" I began, but Reno cut in laughing.

"Oh don't worry, he probably just has a stomachache or something. Too much spinach, you know?"

Woffia blinked. Hard. Reno grinned cheesily. I felt a weird sensation and realized that was the third lie Reno'd said today. He never lied. Fluffs just don't lie! Lying is bad. Bad bad bad. And as we'd learn later that day, if a Fluff became bad, then the world was in for trouble.

Cait Sith tapped Reno on the shoulder. Reno looked at him. Cait Sith stood up and motioned for Reno to do the same, squishing his moogle with his other arm.

"Excuse us," Cait Sith said to Woffia, then walked away and Reno followed looking kind of...nervous.

Yuffie stood up and bounced around the both of us. "Heehee..hee..."

Woffia giggled at Yuffie. "Is she always this hyper?"

I nodded cheerfully. "Yep. Always always."

We all looked up when Teff whistled sharply and started calling everyone back around where the materia grew. We all got up and followed everyone else. Cait Sith and Reno walked slowly a little ways away, talking. I could see them a little. Reno was nodding and looking kind of...I dunno the word for it. Guilty? Maybe. Cait Sith looked serious, but then he said something and both of them laughed nervously. Teff talked and everyone looked at him.

"Now that you've all had some time to think about what I said, and rest and eat, I have one last thing to tell you before you all return to your homes."

I blinked. Wow. That was short. I didn't expect it to be short. Oh well.

"We Fluffs are meant to be pure creatures. We're taught from when we're very young to never lie, or cheat, or say anything bad in any way, or do anything wrong like that. We are to be cheerful as often as we can."

Reno looked pretty humble right about then. I also felt kind of guilty about the cheerful part.

"We're taught that way because we have to be. If a Fluff guarding a materia goes bad, it can attract bad people to come and take it, it can attract our sworn enemies, the Floofers, and it can even affect the way the materia grows!"

There was a shiver that ran all the way around the group. Everybody had heard stories of how awful the Floofers were. They came in swarms and ripped things to shreds with their teeth and claws, and ate them, including Fluffs. It was pretty scary to even think about. They also really liked burning things.

"So we must all be the best we can be. Everything anyone does, doesn't just affect them, it affects everyone on the island. So that's what I wanted you all to think about on the way home. Be the best you can!"

Everybody nodded alot and a few went "Yeah!" or "Okay!". Teff grinned and dismissed us. I blinked at the materia while everyone else was walking away. Wow...it could even change how the materia grew? That was something to think about. I wasn't sure I believed him, actually. But he was pretty old and knew alot of things, so I figured I probably should. When I looked up Reno was the only one near me who hadn't left the cave. I blinked at him. He was looking at the materia too. He sighed a huge sigh and then looked at me and grinned.

"Hey, what're you waiting for? Everybody's leaving!" He turned to go.

"Uh yeah!" I said, and trotted after him.

The sun was a little bright and funny looking after being in the cave. Reno ran ahead of me and pounced on Yuffie, who giggled and bit his ear. Woffia laughed at them, and Cait Sith didn't look solemn anymore. He ran circles around Yuffie and Reno while they play-fought. I caught up and yawned loudly, stretching.

"You still tired, Sephi?" Reno teased, during a pause.

"Y-yeah maybe," I said, finishing up my yawn. "It's warm today!" I sat down and put my fur coat in my lap and started petting it, beaming at its shiny silverness.

Woffia plopped down next to me and blinked at my coat, then grinned. "So your sister got it for you?"

I nodded cheerfully. "Yuffie's good at finding cool presents. She got Reno a headdress like Nanaki's!"

"Cool! You're related to Nanaki? That's awsome!"

I nodded even more. "Mmhm! On my dad's side I think. My dad came from a continent too, now that I remember. It's mom's family that's been here for forever."

"Woww...that's so cool! I could be related to Nanaki...but I dunno. It's probably distant."

"Mm. Sooo do you like it here?" I nudged.

She nodded. "I didn't when I came because it was so cold and snowy, but it's really pretty now that everything's warm and nice."

I nodded. We both probably looked silly nodding our heads off like that. It was funny. We both laughed.

"So you're ten?"

"Mmm eleven in a month, actually." She beamed. "You wanna come to my birthday?"

My eyes widened and I didn't know what to say. "Uh...um...your birthday? W...when is it?"

"In a month, silly. I just said that! It's actually exactly a month from yesterday."

"Oh...so...you want me to come?" I blinked.

"Yeah? I just said I did!" She giggled. "And your brothers and sister can come too."

Reno got tackled by Yuffie pretty bad. He wasn't looking.

"Gack! Rawr!" He threw her off and came over. "Did I hear right? We can all come to your birthday?" He looked really excited, especially since he was panting from the fight.

Woffia nodded. "Yep! The more the merrier."

"Well we'll come then!" Cait Sith said, grinning and bouncing a little. Yuffie hopped up and down like a bunny.

"Yay birthday!"

Reno shoved her. "Don't do that, Yuffie! Mom says it makes you look like a crazy Floofer."

Yuffie immediately stopped, but she did look kind of put out. "But it's fuuun."

I turned to Woffia. "So how many brothers and sisters do you have? We should get presents for them too, right?"

Woffia smiled. "Oh, I don't...have any siblings."

Our jaws dropped. "No siblings?" Yuffie squealed. Cait Sith poked her. Reno looked kind of shocked.

Woffia slowly shook her head. "I'm an only Fluff."

"Wow..."

This was really something. Only Fluffs were really rare. My own family was actually pretty small. Fluffs were known to have tons and tons of kids. Four was a small litter.

Woffia looked a little uncomfortable so we all had to stop staring because that was just rude. Reno scratched behind his ear, since we weren't eating anymore, then pounced on Yuffie again, who was very unprepared, so he got the best of that match. Cait Sith jolted out of his awe and cheered them both on, then joined in. Woffia grinned, glad she wasn't being stared at anymore. She nudged me with her head.

"Aren't you gonna join in?"

I laughed. "Ahh probably not. I'm not very good at those games."

"Neither am I," she giggled. "Maybe we should practice together."

I barely had time to blink before she pounced me.

"AH! No! Rawr! Aaah!" I yelled and struggled to throw her off, but she just giggled and pinned me down.

"Waa..that wasn't fair! Anyway, I can't bite back! I don't have claws and my teeth aren't very sharp!" I whimpered.

She sighed a sigh that was kind of a laugh and rolled over me so she was lying on her back. It looked funny, but she just grinned up at the bottom of the tree branches.

"Sorry. I didn't think about that."

I sat up. "It's okay."

She rolled onto her side and lifted her head to look at me. "So...how come you don't have..."

"Fur? Teeth? Claws?" I giggled.

"Yeah," she blushed.

"It's okay," I said again, scratching my head. "I dunno why, but people actually don't ask me alot! It's kind of weird!" I laughed.

"They don't? Weird," she murmured.

"Yeah. Well...I'm not sure exactly...but y'know...how the real Sephiroth was...the way he was I guess kind of because of something a scientist did. Nanaki almost had some of that stuff happen too."

I lay down on my stomach with my chin on my hands. I guess it made me feel more like a Fluff, y'know, how they put their heads down on their paws.

"Anyway, some of that happened back in our family somewhere, and I guess it didn't show until a long time later, when I was born."

I fiddled with some weedy little flower-things.

Woffia was quiet. "Oh..."

I grinned. "It's nothing to be sorry about anyway. I mean, no harm done, right?"

"Yeah!" she said, nodding. "You're right. I like you the way you are!"

"Yeah!" I blushed a little and beamed. "Yeah! OOF!"

I blinked up at Reno who was grinning down at me, both his front paws on my chest. He snickered. "You're never gonna get good at play fighting if you don't practice, little brother!"

"Grrrrr," I tried to growl, but it didn't come out quite right. I grabbed his front legs and tried to push him off, and managed to roll us both onto our sides, but he grabbed my ear.

"Ow ow!" I yelled. "That's not fair!" I grabbed Reno's ears and jerked his head away. He yelped and reached up a paw to rub tenderly at them.

"Ahh...good one!" he said.

I stood up, giggling excitedly. "I just did what you did!"

Reno laughed, still rubbing his ear. "Maybe you do have claws after all."

I beamed, just before he threw me to the ground again.

"Ow!"

**

* * *

**"Aah! Help me! Help, Yuffie! I dunno what to do waahaa...!" 

I'd never seen Reno so pathetic. He was running around in circles chasing his tail and frantically trying to think at the same time. He changed course and pounced on Yuffie.

"Waa! What should I get her!" He wailed, shaking Yuffie repeatedly.

For once she looked kind of annoyed, though she laughed just the same. "You've been asking me for the last hour! I only had one idea for a present for Woffia so I don't have any others!" she whacked him on the head with her pencil, which she was using to write more verses to the "Yay, Presents, Yay!" song.

Reno whimpered and rubbed his head and lay down with his head on his paws. His tail was all droopy like it would've been if he'd just fallen into the water or something. He HAD gone swimming earlier that day. I never really caught on to the idea of how to swim. Swimming is hard. He kept whimpering like a lost puppy until Yuffie threw her pencil at him and it bounced off his nose.

"Gosh Reno! Go for a walk or something, maybe you'll get some ideas if you look around!"

I snickered from where I was fixing up my blanky-nest. I probably shouldn't have. To tell the truth, I was kind of panicking too. It was a day and a half until Woffia's birthday and I didn't have an idea for a present either. Reno got up and walked gloomily out of the cave. Cait Sith was helping Dad make some repairs on the bathroom. Mom decided she should brush my hair. She liked doing that. So I didn't complain when she came over and started doing it.

"How you doin' Sephi?" she asked me. I felt a funny prickling in my neck and bowed my head.

"I'm doin' good, mom!" I said as cheerfully as I could.

"Good," she said, and I could hear her tail swishing. "You getting along well with everyone?"

She always asked me that. "Yep."

"Good," she said again. "Was your romp with Woffia the other day fun?"

I think I blushed a little. I could probably tell what mom was thinking. But we were still only ten! Anyway, everyone else had been there too. Tilo was there. It's not like it was just me and her.

"Yeah, it was pretty fun," I said slowly.

"You and Reno are having trouble thinking of a present for her, aren't you?"

I sighed. "Yeahhh. It's really hard! I don't know what she would want, that's all!"

"So you haven't had any ideas at all?" she said, tugging on a piece of my hair.

"Ow. Not any good ones," I pouted.

"Well if you still can't think of anything by the end of the day you come ask me, okay? And bring Reno."

"Huh? Okay!" I said, cheering up a bit. That meant mom probably had something in mind! Maybe I wouldn't have to apologize to Woffia for not getting her a present after all!

"I think Reno's pretty smitten," she said, giggling a little. I blinked.

"Sm..itten..? What's that?"

"He likes Woffia," she said in a serious tone of voice.

"So? I do too. So does Yuffie and Cait Sith." I blinked. "She's fun."

My mom laughed. "Oh Sephi...you're so cute. I meant he likes her in a different way."

"H-...ohh. Like that?" I did know...I was just playing dumb I think. I do that alot. It's fun. Because then people explain things and you don't have to guess at the little details.

My mom was laughing. "Maybe when they're both old enough, her parents and I and your father can arrange something."

"Hmm..." I said. "Yeah maybe! So you really think Reno...y'know..."

"I do. Isn't it obvious?"

I didn't say anything. Obvious? I guess it was. Cait Sith said once that Fluffettes make guy Fluffs act funny. Reno sure was acting funny. I mean what was that whole spinach thing about? And why was he giving me mean looks? Was that what Cait Sith meant? And he threw a rock at me and lied three times. If that's what Cait Sith meant, then I sure didn't want to be that way...but Woffia didn't make me act like that. Neither did any other girl Fluffs I knew- wait...I only knew Yuffie. But still. I didn't understand. Why would Reno act like that just because he liked Woffia? And why was it all aimed at me? I sighed.

"Sephi?" My mom bumped me with her head. "What's wrong?"

I tried not to look sad. "Oh, I'm fine!" I said, waving my hands and trying to show that I was by grinning.

"Didn't old Teff say you young Fluffs shouldn't lie?" My mom said slyly. "You sighed."

"I wasn't...lying...okay maybe. Well I just was wondering why Reno is mean to me sometimes!" I giggled and scratched my head. My mom pulled my hand away.

"You're messing up your hair. Reno's mean to you? How?"

"Well not really mean!" I said quickly. "Ahaha...I mean...he's just been acting funny! Yesterday when we were playing tag he kept pushing me out of the way. And when we went to the materia cave he lied three times and ate spinach and kept looking at me weird and then he threw a rock at me and I don't knowww!" I whimpered. "Why is he being so weiird?"

Mom looked startled. I felt guilty for telling on Reno. He hadn't lied since we went to the materia cave, and he hadn't done anything really mean like rock-throwing either, but still...

"Hmm...I don't know, Sephi. Maybe he's jealous," my mom chucked.

"Huhh?" I turned to look at her. "But that doesn't make any sense! Why would he be-"

"Did all these things happen when you were with Woffia?"

I still didn't get it. "Um...yeah...I think so. Except...for a couple times. But what does that have to do-"

"Those other times, were you talking about her?"

I blinked and went quiet for a minute to think. "...yeah...?"

"Then it's obvious. Reno is afraid and jealous, and that's why he's doing those things!" she laughed.

"But...but...I don't get it!"

My mom smiled and put the brush down. It was a nice one. Reno had payed for most of it, and it had come about two months ago. Good thing, too, or else I would've looked really awful when I went to my first day being taught by Teff with the other two-digit Fluffs. She stroked one of my funny bangs and laughed softly.

"Do you think Woffia likes you?"

"Huh? Uh..n.." I started, then immediately clapped my hands over my face and bowed my head so my mom couldn't see when the blushiness started. Why! Why did I have to blush? Again! I was afraid mom would take that as a yes. She did. She fell over giggling.

"Ohh Sephi, I love you. You're so sweet."

"Moooom," I groaned, still hiding my face. I grabbed a pillow to help hide me. "Stop iit!"

"But you're turning all red, Sephi! That's obviously a sign!"

"No!" I shook my head frantically. "It's not it's not! It's just because you think it is! You think she likes me and it made me blush that you think that!" I dived into my blanky-nest and curled up.

"Aww Sephi...don't hide in there. You'll make your hair all funny again."

"I like it! And I don't think she likes me like...like you think she does! So..." I sniffled, huggling my pillow so it made my voice all muffly. "IM ONLY TEN MOM!"

"And so was I when I met your dad. We were good friends until we turned sixteen and got together."

I poked my head out. "Yeah! Friends! Exactly! Frieeends! I'm friends with Woffia! I like being friends! I don't wanna do stupid things like throwing rocks at people. So I'm never liking someone like that!" I said stubbornly, rubbing my eyes. "Why does Reno..."

I huggled my pillow and whimpered.

She sat down and her tail thumped against my side. "I don't think you'd act the same as Reno does even if you did like Woffia the way he does," she said quietly. "You're different Sephi. You may not have fur but you're a pure Fluff through and through."

My eyes got big and shiny and made my mom melt. "W...weawwy?" I said in a voice that I knew was cute only because everyone said it made them want to squeeze me to death. My mom beamed.

"Weawwy," she said and licked me on the cheek.

"ACK! Mooom!" I sat up and rubbed at it. "Yucky!"

"It's just a motherly kiss!" she giggled.

I giggled. "Okay okay. So anyway, I'm just Woffia's friend! So there!"

"I know," my mom said. "I just don't know if Reno does."

I nodded slowly. "You think Woffia likes Reno back?"

"We'll see, I'm sure."

It felt funny to be talking about this with my mom. I guess it would've felt funny with anybody though. I grinned at her. "I'll go see if I can find Reno."

"You do that."

**

* * *

**It was getting dark. I wandered around through the woods and it was creepy. I could hear the frogs and crickets. They were really loud and the moon was really bright but it was cloudy and the moon made the clouds all purply blue and smoky looking. It made me feel nervous. 

"Renooo..." I called quietly. I heard a crackly noise and spun around. "Wa..."

It sure was dark. The shadows were moving around a little here because of the wind in the trees. I shivered.

"Reno...!" I scurried into a patch of moonlight, feeling like something was reaching at me. "This is scary!"

I stopped when I heard a weird whistling howling sound. Was it the wind? It probably was. I was just really nervous. I turned around slowly, looking for the eyes I thought were watching me. I took a deep breath and suddenly twitched.

"R...Reno!" I breathed out. I could smell him! Just barely...wait, where did it go? I crouched down and sniffed. There it was again! I ran forward, sniffing and sniffing and pausing to find it again when it got lost. I'd never tried this before, except once when I was little and we were playing hide and seek. I wasn't sure. Was it just my imagination? Or could I actually smell things out like other Fluffs? I got excited. It hadn't worked so well that day when I was little. I panted in the warm wind and kept running until I saw where I was actually going.

"Hey..." It was the materia cave. I sniffed. Okay...so he was in there? I crept toward it carefully. It was even darker in there...except for a tiny glow from the materia. I went in slowly.

"R...Reno?" My voice was really tiny. I heard a little shuffling noise. My neck prickled and I could almost feel my hair rising like a cat's. "Reno..! You here?"

"Hey Seph," Reno sounded nervous.

"Where are you?" I squeaked. "It's too dark, I can't see you."

The wind sounded funny from in here, especially. I felt something touch me and yelped.

"Sheesh Seph, it's me! Don't freak out!"

"A..a...oh..." I fell over in relief. Reno tripped over me.

"Ow! Seph! What are you doing?"

"I was looking for you?" I squeaked again, like a mouse.

"...oh." He got up and dragged me up with him. "Well let's go home then."

"Yeah," I trembled. "Yeah let's go!" I shouted.

Reno squeezed my wrist where he held it. "Shh."

"Huhh?" I said dumbly. He gave my arm a little shake.

"Be quiet a sec. I thought I saw something."

I felt really nervous now! I reached out and clung to Reno's fur. "What is it? What is it?" I hissed.

"SHH! It was over there!" He pointed, but I could only barely see his arm.

"What was?" I whispered. "...AAH!"

We saw it. Bright, reddish pink eyes in the dark, and looking at us. Whatever it was stepped into the light and we saw that it wasn't very big...about the size of a rabbit, and almost the shape of one too, except for a few little things, and one major difference- it had fangs and huge claws. It would have looked cute if it didn't look so evil. I didn't know what it was at first but Reno guessed and screamed, running and nearly yanking my arm out of its socket.

"IT'S A FLOOFER! RUN!"

I screamed along with him and we ran for our lives, probably waking every Fluff family on the island. Which was a good thing. I could hear the Floofers' horrible squealing howls behind me and it just made me run faster. I didn't even dare to look behind me. I was running with all I had, and eventually I was the one in front dragging Reno, since he couldn't run with all four paws when he was holding my wrist and neither of us wanted to let go for fear of losing each other in the dark.

Soon the other Fluffs were pouring out of their caves and tearing along ahead of us. A big one ran right into Reno and me and we both accidentally let go and fell over. I scrambled out of the way so the big Fluff wouldn't step on me but then I stopped because Reno was crying out and it sent chills up my back.

"SEPHI!"

I turned around and got my feet frozen to the ground. Reno wasn't on his feet, and I could barely see his red fur through all the Floofers that were on top of him. I stood there for a few long seconds of shock, but when Reno called out for me again and he sounded so scared, I ran forward blindly and jumped into the middle of the mass of Floofers and found Reno's fur...it was wet. I grabbed him and tried to drag us both out of there, but there were claws and teeth everywhere I turned, slashing and biting at me. I stumbled around and tried to shield my face and eyes from it mostly, but that didn't keep it from hurting alot. I'd never been really attacked by anything before. This was awful. I couldn't even think. And Reno was yelling for me over and over. I couldn't fight back. It was horrible! All I could do was throw myself over Reno and bury my face in his fur so the Floofers couldn't scratch my eyes out. They pulled my hair and bit through my clothes. I couldn't stand it! I felt a weird tingly all over. A second later I couldn't see anything.

The next thing I knew I was being half-carried, half-dragged across the ground. I started whimpering. "Ow...ow ow ow."

It stopped. I heard my mom's voice. "Sephi! It's alright, just hang on!"

I closed my eyes and climbed on her back she carried me the rest of the way. I didn't know where I was or how I got there. I just knew I hurt alot and suddenly I remembered.

"I...Is Reno okay!" I asked frantically. I heard my dad's voice.

"He's still asleep."

I clung to my mom. "Wh-what happened?" I felt strange. Wet. Especially my face and arms.

"Shh, we'll talk once we're on our way."

I noticed that mom and dad were running now. I looked behind us. Something was...glowy. Red and glowy. Orange and red and yellow. I couldn't see the moon anymore.

"Where are we going?" I whimpered.

My mom didn't say anything. I closed my eyes and tried not to think about the weird wet hurting feeling. There was a rushing crackling noise somewhere. I couldn't hear the frogs and crickets anymore. And then all I could hear was the ocean. I didn't open my eyes, and then I fell asleep.


	3. Water water everywhere!

The strange thing about writing this through Rae is that I hear her comments all the time. I'm sure she thinks the same about me. That's the funny thing about being someone's "imaginary friend". That's what Rae calls me, I'm serious! It's a funny thing, isn't it? And what's funnier is, I do feel like one sometimes. I get glimpses of her world through her eyes, it's like riding around inside her somewhere, and she does the same with me in mine. So I guess in my world, when talking to people in my own world, I could even call her MY imaginary friend! Except everyone in this world can see her. Nobody in Rae's world can see me. It's weird that way.

Rae also calls this world different names. I just know it as "The Planet".

But I kind of got away from what I was trying to say. I can tell Rae's thinking now, "I thought this was supposed to be a fun story". It is! It's even just a tiny bit fun telling about the Floofers, even though they still scare me because of that night. And a lot of things change after this part. Lots and lots of things. It's sad but happy too. Life sure was different afterward. I got the chance to think about a lot of different things, like who I really was, deep things like that. I learned tons I never thought about before. So that's the happy part. The sad part...I don't really know how to say it. The sad part is part of the happy part too. But there were other sad things, more sad things, like the changes you can't ever change back if you want to. I guess those were the saddest parts.

* * *

"Do you think it'll heal?"

"I don't know. It should. He should walk again, but the scars..."

"Hey! Now he'll look even MORE like uncle Nanaki!"

"Yuffie, that's not funny. This isn't something to laugh about."

"Hey, I know! I was just-"

"Quiet, children. They're still asleep."

Who were they talking about? Ow. I hurt...alot. I tried to listen better because my eyes were too heavy to open right away. There was water somewhere, like the ocean. I still felt wet, and my skin stung in weird places, but I was warm, actually felt kind of sick and hot, and shaky. My head felt funny, like something was pressing on it. The floor was hard, and it kept moving around. Was it just because I was dizzy? Or were we actually moving? My left arm was under my head. It felt numb and cold. I rolled off it and onto my back and my eyes snapped open and so did my mouth, and I yelled and cried and rolled back onto my side faster than anything.

"Owww! AAH! It hurts! Owwiiie...!" I cried. "My back..!" I could barely talk 'cause it hurt so bad.

My mom came over and laid a paw on my cheek. "It's alright Sephi, it's alright. Shhh."

I whimpered and clung and cried until the stingy burningness on my back went away (mostly) and then I wiped my face off in my mom's fur and took a deep breath.

"What's going on?" I asked. I tried to sit up but it made me dizzy so I laid back down.

"We're on the ocean...somewhere between home and Goblin Island."

"Oh," I said slowly. "Is everything...everybody...okay?"

The silence made me feel weird. Then my dad said, "We'll be alright."

"What? Did something..."

"Reno got it pretty bad," Cait Sith mumbled.

"Reno!" I sat up suddenly and clung to mom so I wouldn't get too dizzy. I looked and found him laying a little ways off on the weird raft we were floating on. He was asleep and nearly covered in bandages- I didn't even care that those bandages were made out of my now nonexistent shirt- who cared? Where else would they get cloth? Fluffs don't need clothes. I stared at him and my eyes watered.

"Is he okay!" I asked. Mom nodded slowly.

"He'll live. He won't look the same, and he might have a few other problems, but he should be fine as long as we can keep the bites tended well."

I sniffed back my crying. "But...I tried to keep them off! I really did!"

Dad nodded. "We know, son. We know. If it weren't for that strange Fluff you both would probably be gone, and if it weren't for you, Reno would be much worse."

"Huh? What happened? I don't know what happened!"

Yuffie jumped up. "When I found you two I could hardly see you! The Floofers were all over you, and I thought you'd just died but then this weird shimmery silver Fluff came out of nowhere and drove them off. Then he just disappeared! Like a ghost!"

She bounced in excitement. Dad frowned. "Stop that, you're rocking the boat."

Yuffie's ears drooped and she stopped.

I stared at Reno. He was breathing weird, I could see his side go up and down all shaky-like. I still felt awful, and not just because my back hurt. I buried my face in mom's fur so nobody would see I was crying.

"I tried to fight them...I did..." I whispered.

Mom rubbed her head against mine a little and after a while I stopped crying and blinked around at the "boat".

"What are we floating on...?"

"The ocean, silly!" Yuffie said.

Cait Sith laughed nervously. "I think he meant what we're sitting on..."

Dad smiled in a funny way. "We're actually...sitting on the bottom of our kitchen table."

"...ohhhh!" I said. Fluff's tables are usually pretty huge, 'cause they have such big families. It made sense to use the table as a raft, it was the biggest flat surface in our cave that could be taken out.

"Everyone who made it out is on the ocean now, drifting wherever it's going," Mom said sadly. "It's the only safe place we could go."

I shivered, still feeling hot and sick. "So the Floofers...Round Island...? All the Fluffs left? Everyone?"

Dad nodded. "Everyone who made it out," he said, repeating my mom's words. "There were too many, it was hopeless to try and fight them off."

I felt my lip trembling and was about to dive back into my mom's shoulder but she smiled.

"Hey, none of that."

"Huh?" I yelped, feeling almost like she'd smacked me.

"Fluffs are to be cheerful at all times they possibly can. We can make the best out of this, you know? Hey. We're all together. Nobody was lost from our family. We have alot to be thankful for!"

"B..but..." I started, feeling stupid.

"No buts! No feeling sorry! Everything will be alright. We just have to keep our spirits up."

I bit my lip. "Mm."

It was quiet for a second and then Cait Sith coughed and said "But what about foo-"

"Everything will be fine!" My mom repeated and beamed. My dad cleared his throat.

"Come on, I'll tell you a story."

We all blinked and turned toward him. Dad only told stories every once in a while but when he did, they were usually good.

"It's the story of the three Fluffs and their brave voyage across the ocean to Mideel..."

* * *

Spending days and days and days on an upside-down table in the middle of the ocean gives you alot of time to think. I mean, sure, dad told us stories alot and Reno woke up on the second day and made sure to keep us entertained by grumbling in a low gravelly voice like he'd swallowed a bunch of sand, and we saw some weird creatures in the water (that jellyfish was scary), and a seagull perched on Cait Sith's head once and tried to steal his moogle, but other than that, it was just water water water. And no food. I forgot to say that. We didn't really have much food. Yuffie found a new hobby in trying to catch fish but she only managed once every couple of days, and I only ate a little- yes, I ate raw fish. None of us really liked fish, but it was food. Even if it was raw.

So I thought alot. I tried, but I couldn't remember anything about a silver Fluff. All I could remember was suddenly I couldn't see anything and then next thing I knew mom was carrying me. Had I gotten hit on the head or something? Weird.

Another thing I thought about was how I was different. I'd thought about that even before we left home, but now I thought about it almost all the time. I didn't worry about fur though. I worried about how I couldn't fight. Maybe if I'd had teeth and claws and had practiced play fighting more I would have been able to make it so Reno wasn't so ripped up. After a while we could take some of his bandages off, but I almost wish we didn't. He had huge patches were the Floofers had bit out chunks...it made me shiver. It would take a long time to heal, and even then, some of those parts would be scars and furless. He DID look more like uncle Nanaki, but as Cait Sith said, that's not something to laugh about. Though Yuffie did. Quietly. Nobody told her off when she did it quietly because Mom was always saying we should keep our spirits up.

So I really wanted claws. Or something. I wanted to be able to do my part somehow! What if we ever got attacked by Floofers again? What if I was the only one who could do anything? What if I COULDN'T do anything? I thought about this so much it made me feel sick. Mom wondered if maybe the Floofer's poison had sunk too deep into the gash in my head. I forgot to tell about my own hurts. My head was all bandaged up funny 'cause they'd got me a big cut on the back. My hair around there had a red tinge for a long time. My back got it the worst. I had a couple scratches on my face that healed pretty quick- they were just little. Some on my arms and legs. But my back and the big cut on my head took the longest to heal. It's hard tending wounds infected with Floofer acid when all you have is salt water. I ended up having to rip off the bottom part of my pants to make more bandages. Yeah.

It had been a long time since we'd had water either. The first couple of days it rained alot and mom and dad managed to catch some in some bowls. I don't know how we had bowls. I think mom had been getting them ready to take to a repair Fluff when the Floofers attacked, so she ended up dragging them along since they were already in her pack. They were cracked. Yeah, that was probably it. So we managed to catch some water the first couple of days, but it lasted pretty short, and then it didn't rain. So it had been a couple or three days since we had water. We were all really thirsty. It's a good thing we finally ran into someone.

It was right in the afternoon. It was really hot. We were all panting like our distant cousins (dogs) and then Yuffie bounced and the table rocked and everyone yelled at her until she pointed out the thing on the horizon. It took us a while to guess it was a boat (what else would it be? We were really out of it). Then we all started paddling horribly until it was enough in sight that Yuffie started jumping up and down waving her paws at the boat and yelling until we practically had to pin her down to keep her from turning the table over. Then we all waved while sitting down and yelled, even Reno, and finally a head popped out over the railing and disappeared, and we heard someone yelling. We settled in to wait.

A couple of young guys looked down at us. I blinked at them. Wow. I'd heard about humans and had been told I looked like one, but I'd never seen any 'cept on the posters mom and dad gave us. They blinked down at us too. They'd probably never seen fluffs before. I waved at them slowly.

"Hey!" one of them said. "What the heck are those things!" He pointed at my family.

"Uhm..." I began, feeling a strange hot flush on my face. "They're Fluffs. Just like..." I began, but my mom shook her head at me.

I felt unsettled. I wanted to stand up and do something...I don't know what. Something fast and hard. Was I angry? Maybe a little. Was I flustered? Probably.

"What're ya doin' with them, dude? And out in the middle of the ocean too...crazy, I tell ya..."

"We got run off our island!" I yelled.

"Well ya look like ya got run through a helicopter engine!" the guy chucked.

I blinked and frowned. "We need help! We got attacked!"

"Sure, sure. Chill dude. We'll get ya up asap, ya know what I mean?" he chucked again and gave me a thumbs up and smacked his friend on the shoulder and they both turned to go get some other people.

My dad lowered his tail, which had been bristled weirdly. "Strange people," he muttered. My mom looked concerned.

I felt shivery after that. Maybe I was nervous. Reno grumbled. "Weiiirdos. That guy can't even talk straight. Wonder if he'll be able to find the other people without getting lost."

Yuffie giggled. I laughed weakly. A whole bunch of people lined up on the rail and lowered a little boat into the water, which had the first two guys in it that saw us. They rowed over and motioned to me.

"Hop in, man!"

I cautiously stood up and jumped into the boat. It rocked awfully and I clung to the side with a nervous noise. The guy laughed. "'kay now we'll help your little furry friends in, I guess."

Yuffie jumped in hyperly and nearly missed and hit the water instead- but thankfully, she didn't. She just bruised her nose on the other side of the boat. Mom and dad sort of carried Reno over and the weird guy grabbed him and tried to help.

"Hey, watch it!" Reno snapped and the guy dropped him. Reno tumbled into the boat and lay there groaning.

"HOLY CHOCOBOS! That thing talked! DUDE!" the guy looked pretty shook up. He turned to his friend. "Tell me that it wasn't just me! Ya heard it too, right?"

His friend shrugged.

Mom and Dad hurried into the boat and Cait Sith followed nervously, clutching his moogle. He'd become even more attached to it recently. He of course had to walk on his back legs. It made the people look at him funny.

"Dude," the guy said to me. "Those are some talented dogs ya got there."

I bristled. "They're not dogs!" I yelled.

"Whoa man! Chill! Don't freak out on me!" The guy sweatdropped. I didn't know it then, but I looked pretty scary when I was mad. "Didn't mean nothin' by it, serious!"

I quivered and tried to calm down. I wasn't used to being angry. I hadn't ever really been mad before.

We pushed off and Yuffie waved the table goodbye while we rowed back to the boat. I watched it go sadly. The last thing from Round Island we'd had. There it went...it just drifted off. I turned around and blinked at the weird guy and his friend. Weird guy grinned cheesily. His friend was blinking thoughtfully at us. Weird guy had bright orange hair that looked like...well it kind of stood straight up. It wasn't extremely long but it shouldn't have stood up for how long it WAS. He wore pink shorts and a white vest thing with huge pockets and a black shirt underneath. He had freckles too. I had NEVER seen freckles before. His friend just had short plain brown hair and his clothes were all grey. He wore long pants and his shirt had sleeves to the elbow. They were both like completely opposites.

"So...ya from Mideel or somethin'?" weird guy asked. I shook my head quickly. No way. Floofers came from Mideel.

"Leave him alone, Jay," the quiet guy said. "He looks like he's had his share of it."

Weird guy blinked. I guess I should call him Jay. Mom always says to call people by their real names unless they had a nickname like mine and were okay with people using it. Then he laughed and put his hands behind his head.

"Whatever you say, man."

I sat still and looked at them both. Jay kept his eyes on me but his friend was staring out at the ocean and seemed to be thinking. Then he looked at me and I nearly jumped. His eyes were blue, by the way. So were Jay's, but I noticed it in his friend more. They both had different kinds of blue. The quiet guy's face changed. I don't know if he was smiling a little or frowning a little. It was hard to tell. He was doing SOMETHING. I blinked and bowed my head. If I'd had a tail I would've lowered it out of respect like other Fluffs do when meeting one another, when they're unsure of where they stand. But all I could do was lower my head, so I did.

The guy moved his head. Did he nod? It's like he only did things halfway, never all the way. He looked away at the ocean again. I lifted my head. I'd never really gotten the hang of the whole acceptance procedure. I couldn't tell what he thought.

We got to the side of the big boat and I looked up in awe. It was so HUGE! Jay hooked it up and yelled up at the people on board, and soon we were on deck. I helped Mom and Dad with Reno this time. I felt funny. Everybody looked at us. Some of them seemed scared and other people were grinning. I stood in front of my family. I guess I felt like I had to protect them, since the people had only tried talking to me so far.

A bigger man came over and I lowered my head again, sensing that he was the leader. He had a big shadow, I noticed.

"You the leader here?" he asked me. I looked up but still kept my head a little low by bending over.

"Huh?" I looked at my parents for what to do. They nodded.

"Um..yeah.." I said, and felt weird.

"Would you mind explaining how you got into the middle of the ocean with four dogs?" he chucked.

"They're not dogs!" I said again, straightening. I heard a growl behind me and looked to see my dad shaking his head at me. I turned back to the captain guy.

"Well..." I began. "We...we lived on Round Island...and-"

"Round Island?" Jay spluttered. "You kiddin' me? You've been there!"

I nodded slowly. The captain laughed.

"I don't believe you, but go on."

I blinked. "The Floofers attacked us-"

"FLOOFERS!" Jay gasped and started laughing. "Floofers? What are they, rabid squirrels?"

I stared at him, not sure what to say. I'd never had anyone not believe me before...not like this. I guess that's 'cause Fluffs don't normally lie, huh?

"It's true," I mumbled.

The captain chucked. "Well sonny, I guess we'll have to take your word on it for now. My guess is you've had a hard time of whatever it was, maybe hit your head or something and don't quite remember right. Either way, you and your little friends are welcome till we get back to the mainland. But you'll have to pull your weight once you're all rested and healthy. Anythin' we can get you right off the bat?"

I licked my lips. "Uh...water...please?"

Reno panted exaggeratedly.

The captain snapped his head toward Jay and his friend. "Get our guests some water."

"Eep! Yessir!" Jay yelped and ran off. His friend followed him.

The captain yelled at everybody else. "Stop your staring and get back to work! We're only here for the day y'know, we gotta be back at the island within the hour!"

Everyone scurried off. I was glad- I didn't like it that they looked at my family so weirdly. The captain put a hand on my shoulder and I winced. He took it off and laughed.

"I'll show you the way to the ship's doctor- lucky we brought him along. Didn't think we'd need him, but I guess fate proved me wrong."

"Mm." He led the way and I followed him, Mom, Dad, Cait Sith, Yuffie, and Reno trailing behind.


	4. Rubbing alcohol and Bandaids

"Arghhh," Reno moaned as the doctor undid his bandages. "Be carefullll," he whimpered.

Mom and dad stood next to the bed looking worried and Yuffie was jumping circles around the doctor, who was rummaging through a bag full of glowing ball things, before he pulled out a green one. Yuffie twitched an ear and giggled.

"What are they? They're so shiny!"

Cait Sith frowned. "Come on Yuffie, you should know a materia when you see one!"

Yuffie gasped and her eyes got big and scary. "Materiaaa! But I though all materia are red!"

The doctor chucked. It was nice, he didn't seem weirded out that my family could talk and walk around. "Only Summons materia are red. This materia is a Heal materia, and if I go like this-" he popped the materia into a weird bracelet-type thing on his arm, "I can use it to cast Esuna and take the poison out of your brother's wounds. Watch."

Yuffie did. She didn't look away once, while the doctor raised his arm and did a funny move. Green glowyness appeared around Reno, who looked scared for a sec but then raised his head and his ears came out front and he looked surprised.

"Hey...that's COOL!"

Yuffie squealed and went "AWSOME AWSOME!" and huggled the doctor around the waist. He nearly fell over. I think he was kind of shocked. He pried Yuffie off him and backed away.

"Okay...that's...er...yes, it is rather fascinating, isn't it?"

"Do it again, do it again!" Yuffie giggled.

"Hmm," the doctor frowned. "I only have a level one Restore materia..." he took the Heal one out and put in a different one. "And just enough MP to use it once." He sighed. "So I'm afraid your brother won't recover completely today, but his wounds should at least close and he should be able to walk without nearly as much pain."

Mom grinned. "That's completely alright! It's wonderful that you can even do that much for us!"

Dad nodded eagerly. Reno sighed. "Guess that means I'll still have scars, huh?"

The doctor grimaced. "Sorry. I used up alot of MP earlier today. The ship's cook served some food that was a little too far past it's expiration date, and I had to use Esuna on most of the crew."

Reno put his head on his paws. "Whatever. Guess it doesn't matter."

The Doctor raised his arm and Yuffie grinned and leaned forward to watch as the magic worked on Reno. He definitely looked better afterward. The minor wounds were all healed and the big ones had close and weren't bleeding or as raw and awful looking. He shook himself and stood up on the table.

"Hey...that does feel alot better. Thanks doc!"

He jumped off and came over to rub heads with mom and dad, who looked absolutely awe-struck and grateful to tears. I was grinning too, but then I stopped because all of a sudden my mind started going really hard. I hardly even paid attention to the funny sight of Yuffie tackling the poor doctor again and Cait Sith helping him pry her off. Jay and his friend had been standing in the door to watch, and now Jay was practically rolling on the floor about Yuffie and the doctor. I frowned, blinked, then walked over to the doctor, who was now leaning against his operation table and blinking at Yuffie in a nervous way.

"Um," I said, fidgeting. "Do...do you think you could teach me?"

He looked at me, but kept glancing back at Yuffie as if he was scared she might glomp him again. "Teach you what?"

"The...y'know...that!" I pointed at the Restore materia in his bangle thing. He blinked at me.

"Oh, I'm hardly the person to ask. Anyway, someone as young as yourself shouldn't be concerned with it...used unsupervised, it could be dangerous, especially used by someone your age and with as little experience! I see your head wound is worse than we thought."

I blinked. Half that sentence just whooshed over my head. "But you can use it!"

"Yes of course, but I'm hardly in a position to make the judgment of whether or not you're ready to begin using materia- it's a dangerous and weighty thing, you understand?"

"Uh...you mean it's heavy? They don't look heavy! I want to learn!"

The doctor smacked his forehead. "No, no. I'm too busy anyway. You have no more need for me right now, come back when I've restocked on Ether and maybe I'll try and cure that head wound...though I wonder now if it'd do any good..."

I didn't realize he'd just called me an idiot or whatever, but I didn't care. I did understand that he wasn't going to help me. I slumped and walked out dragging my feet. When I got to the door, Jay slapped my shoulder and I yelped.

"Ow! That hurt!"

"So ya wanna use materia, right? Don't listen to that guy, he only knows how to use boring old Restore and Heal materia anyway. If ya wanna learn any materia, you should learn more useful ones. Like these!"

He brought one out of his pocket that was also green. I blinked at it.

"What's the difference? Looks the same to me!" I said.

"Hehehe. There's a BIG difference. This here's a Fire materia!"

"...What does it do?"

Jay smacked my shoulder again laughing. "Ah man, you're great. 'What does it do'...that's hilarious."

I winced and rubbed my shoulder. That really did hurt. Jay's friend shoved him.

"Give that to me before you hurt yourself."

Jay handed over the Fire materia so fast I almost didn't see it change hands, then went off to find some water- he still hadn't given us our drinks. His friend turned to me and I felt like shrinking. It's not that he looked mean or anything. He was just so serious.

"So you want to learn materia? What's your name?"

"S...Sephi," I meeped. "Sephiroth."

"...Sephiroth?" he asked quietly.

I nodded slowly. "That's my name. Like from the Meteor-"

"I know who he is," the guy said. "So that's really your name?"

I nodded again. "But almost everyone calls me Seph or Sephi!"

He looked at me funny, then looked at the Fire materia and put it in his pocket.

"How old are you?"

I tried to stand up a little straighter. "I turned ten a little while ago!"

"Ten, huh? That's pretty young." He frowned at me, like he was thinking, or like he wasn't sure.

"But I can learn!" I said desperately. Maybe too desperately. His frown deepened and his eyebrows rose, then lowered more than ever.

"Why do you want to learn so much? What would you do with the power?"

I paused. "...I'd use it to protect my family!"

"The Fluffs?"

I nodded. "Because I don't have teeth or claws like them."

He stared at me. I was standing so still I could feel myself freezing into that position. I also tried to stare back at him without blinking but my eyes were already burning for some reason so I blinked within about five seconds.

"You're not ready. Magic should only be used by people who already have some discipline. Learn to use a weapon first if you really want to defend people."

"But...!" I slumped. "How am I supposed to do that!"

He had been turning to go, but he stopped while halfway turned around and looked at me sideways. I prickled just before he turned back around and started walking away.

"Wait!" I ran after him. "Tell me what I'm supposed to do!"

I felt like I was pushing my luck here, but he didn't say anything all the way back to his cabin and then he turned around, looked at me, whipped out a gun and shot a hole in his big dartboard which just happened to be right to my left. I yelped and covered my head with both arms.

"Catch." He threw me a bamboo sword and I fumbled ridiculously and dropped it, then hurried to pick it up and stood, shaking my bangs out of my face.

He'd picked up another one and shot toward me and I blinked and turned and held up my hands to protect myself, closing my eyes. He thwacked me on the head.

"OW!" I sniffled and rubbed where he'd hit.

"You really want to learn how to fight?"

I wasn't sure anymore, if he was gonna be this hard on me. That thing hurt! Was it really worth it just to be able to fight? I wasn't sure I'd ever have the courage anyway. I'd probably just run like a little Fluff puppy with my nonexistent tail between my legs.

But then I remembered how much I'd wanted to be able to do something when the Floofers were all over me and Reno, and I nodded, if a little tearfully.

"If you won't teach me materia then I guess I have to learn something else!" I said stubbornly. I gripped the handle of the weird bamboo sword thing. I felt kind of stupid.

"If you say so." He came at me again and I tried to block-

**This is ridiculous. Why didn't you charge first? Everyone knows you have to get stupid teachers like that back by smacking them twice for every time they hit you once!**

Um. Sorry. Little interrupting going on here. I guess the time's come to explain why I now spell my name Seffi...even though I haven't used that spelling in this story! That voice just now was Sephi...or Sephio. Whatever. He's the real Sephiroth. I'm not kidding! THE REAL SEPHIROTH! I know, it scared me when I first found out that I wasn't REALLY a reincarnation or anything like that. The reason I look the way I do is because when Sephiroth died he drifted in the lifestream until he found me, and when I was born, he was in me. He just slept alot until recently, when he woke up and Rae and Elie called him out with the whistle. It was pretty scary...I still feel kind of nervous when I think about it. But it all worked out. Sephiroth found a clone to possess and the girls decided my name should be changed to the Fluff's traditional spelling, so that's that.

**Nice explanation! Now, you're going to tell me you fought back, right?**

Erm...

Well, I tried. But it was pretty pathetic. I couldn't get in a decent hit, though I managed to block a few of his lazier thwacks. He was going easy on me. I ached pretty bad. The doctor hadn't had enough MP to cast Esuna on me- Reno had been the main concern, but I still had the Floofer's acid poison stuff in my cuts and I had been feeling shaky already. So I got backed up in a corner and was panting and sweating and feverish when Jay's friend stopped.

"You're definitely not ready. Come back and ask me again when you're not sick. Doc should be able to find some Ether when we get back to camp."

I slumped over until I was sitting on the floor with my back against the wall, feeling dizzy, and watched him walk away. "Where're we going?" I called after him weakly.

"Goblin Island," he said. "To get Zeio nuts. We only came out on the sea today for the fishing."

"Oh," I mumbled. I didn't know what a Zeio nut was and I didn't really feel like asking. I just sat there holding that stupid bamboo sword and staring at it, eyes half-closed and feeling like I'd fall asleep any second.

"Hey!" Jay bumped my leg with his shoe. "I gotcha some water."

"Huh?" I lifted my head and Jay held the glass out to me- I grabbed it and drank it. It was really cold. I shivered but felt a little better. "Thanks."

"No prob, man! Looks like he went easy on ya, but I guess ya have time to learn, huh?" He grinned at me.

I nodded slowly. "I guess."

He plopped down into a crouch so he could talk to me. "So- what's it like?"

I blinked. "What?"

He leaned forward. "Y'know! Round Island! What's it like?"

"Um..." I leaned my head back against the wall. "It's round..."

Jay laughed. "Man, you're a tough nut to crack. Come on, I want details, man!"

"There's mountains all around the edge," I said sleepily. "And a forest in the middle. And lots of caves where the Fluffs live...and the materia cave. It's really cold in the winter."

"Fluffs...there you go again," he chucked. "So I guess you're gonna tell me you're some weird child whose parents were shipwrecked off the coast and you were taken in and raised by animals or something weird like that?"

I blinked. "No...I'm a Fluff too. I just don't have any fur." I tilted my head back for another sip- the ice in the bottom had melted a little.

"Riiight. Nice story man, it's great!" He gave me a thumbs up. "So I guess it's true you can't get there without a gold chocobo?"

"Huh? I thought all chocobos were gold..."

"Naw, naw man. Those are just the plain old yellow kind!" Jay plopped down so he wouldn't have to crouch anymore. "They can't do nothin' but walk on plain old level ground. Sure you can race 'em, but nothin' beats a gold. Gold chocobos can go anywhere in the world- even across the ocean or over huge mountains!"

"Oh...they must have had a gold for the post chocobos then!" I realized. "That's why it cost so much to ship things over..."

"You serious? You actually got stuff shipped in from the continents?" Jay looked shocked. "Them mail service people must be keepin' you guys a secret- want all the money for themselves, eh?"

"Well nobody rides the gold chocobos over...they just come on their own with the mail," I said quietly. "I think Fluffs from the mainland send them."

Jay blinked, then laughed again. "Man, you sure are creative. Anyway, that's why we're here- ya gotta have a Zeio nut if ya wanna breed chocobos just right to get a gold. Everybody wants to know if Round Island really has the legendary materia, but nobody wants to go to the trouble of breeding to get a gold- it takes a long time."

"Legendary?" I blinked. "You mean the Knights of Round?"

Jay nodded. "Yeah, man! Everyone wants it!"

"Oh..." I frowned, thinking. "Well nobody'll get the materia that's growing there now..."

"Whaat! Why not?" Jay looked dismayed.

I looked at him. "I told you. The Floofers! They took the island over!"

Jay blinked, and started rolling. "Hahahah! Man, that's a good one...them Floofers, must be pretty scary huh?" He rolled all the way to the other side of the ship and left me alone.

**

* * *

****This is amusing. **

Yeah, it's supposed to be! Anyway, it didn't take us long to get back to the land. They dropped anchor a little ways away from the Shore of Goblin Island, and then we took the little boats over to it. It was a green island with patches of forest. Camp was close to shore, so luckily we got there with only one battle, which Jay's friend quickly took care of. His attempt to steal a nut from the goblin didn't work though, so we all just hurried to the camp. I stuck close to my family. Reno limped a little but he could walk at least, and he shot me a smirky grin.

"You should go tackle that doctor, Sephi. Tell him to hurry and find an Ether or you'll bite him!"

I laughed. "Ehehe...sure Reno. I'll do that."

"Go get 'em tiger," he shoved me in what I guess was supposed to be an affectionate brotherly way, but I just ended up staggering over into a tent that was being set up and getting strangled by canvas and yelled at by crew members. Yuffie giggled.

**This is VERY amusing. Do something else!**

Sephiroth...urm...this is in the past. I can't exactly change what happened.

**Yes you can. Do it. Make it more amusing. I command you.**

Ehehh...sure. Well, we'll see how it goes...

So after about ten minutes of tedious untangling from the evil tent, and having to apologize several times to the people who had been setting it up, I scurried off to find the doctor. He was relaxing by himself with a little lemonade, and looked annoyed when he saw me walk over to him.

"What is it this time? Oh, I suppose you need that head wound fixed...alright, I'll see what I can do."

He got up with alot of complaining and slouched over to his tent and started looking through his collection of bottled things and came out with a smallish one, which he quickly drank.

"Mm...still not sure about the taste," he said, wiping his mouth. He took a breath and sighed. "Right then. Esuna first I guess."

He sighed and snapped his fingers. "Oh I forgot. I left the materia on the boat. How careless of me."

I got the feeling he didn't like me.

**How observant of you. It only took me exactly 3 minutes and 17 seconds shorter than you to come to the same conclusion!**

He shoved two bottles at me. "There, one Antidote and a Potion. I'm all out of Hi-Potions so you're lucky you even get that."

I tried to keep a smile on and nodded. "Okay...thanks."

"Whatever, whatever, just let me get back to my lemonade..."

I retreated with the bottles and looked around for some place where I wouldn't be in the way. People were strapping on weapons and slipping materia into their bangles everywhere I looked, or setting up campfires to cook meals or repairing tents...I finally slunk off to the outskirts of camp and went to go sit down on a rock. I uncorked the bottle, sniffed it, and was about to hold my breath and drink when I heard a voice behind me.

"You shouldn't leave the camp boundaries on your own."

"Huh?" I turned. Jay's friend was walking toward me with a long metal sword on one hand and a bunch of materia in the other.

"You could get killed by any of the weakest monsters on this island, so you shouldn't wander off on your own," he said, carefully arranging the materia into slots in his sword and a bangle on his arm.

I cringed, knowing he was right. "I didn't think about that!" I admitted, blinking at the bottle of Antidote in my hand.

He came over and blinked. "Drink up. Maybe if you're feeling good enough tomorrow, and we've had time for another practice run, I can take you out and see how you fare against some small fries."

I blinked. "Uh...okay!"

I'd never drank any cure items like that before, but it's more effective if you drink it (at least that's what I've learned. Sometimes you can just dump it on someone and it'll help, but drinking is better), so I tried to do it quickly. It didn't really taste bad...it was just felt kind of funny going down. I stopped feeling feverish right away. Then for the Potion...it was really sweet. I coughed once I'd swallowed it, and felt all tingly.

"Whoaaa weird."

He looked at me funny. "You've never had any before?"

I shook my head. "Never ever!"

**I can't believe it. What do they do on your island? Rubbing alcohol and band aids?**

...kind of?

**That's pathetic. I pity your race, Fluff.**

Urm...okay. Anyway, I felt quite a bit better and jumped up off the rock. Jay's friend whipped out a knife and I yelped.

"Hold still," he said, and started cutting off the few bandages I had. "Now go ask Jay for some clothes. You look like a castaway."

"Huh?" I sort of was...but I guess that was his point. "Okay. Thanks."

He blinked at me oddly as if to ask "What for?" but he just walked off with his sword in one hand. He got into a fight with a goblin pretty quickly, and he yelled over his shoulder.

"Back to the camp!"

I hurried back into the camp obediently and dodged around all the other people who were heading out to try their luck at stealing a Zeio nut. Jay was about to leave too when I found him.

"Hey!" I called. "Your friend told me to ask you for some clothes...!"

"Hmm?" Jay blinked. "Oh, yeah! Good idea- you're a pretty sorry sight even without all those bandages everywhere! They're in my trunk, just pick out whatever ya want. There should be somethin' in there that'll fit ya."

He waved at me and headed out with a confident grin. I blinked and ducked inside his tent. There was the trunk...it took me a few minutes to unlatch it, and then I blinked at the rainbow of bright colors... I guess Jay liked people's attention. I went through a bunch and didn't find any that I really liked. He didn't seem to own any long pants either, so I just picked out the longest pair of shorts I could find. They were swimming shorts but they didn't look that much different from normal ones...except they had the picture of a weird...doggish...blue thing all over them. But anyway, they were better than what I had on so I hurried and changed. Then I dug a little more and at the very bottom I found it. It was different from all the other shirts, it wasn't as bright and colorful, but I liked it. It had the word "Shirt" printed across the front. So I put that on and felt alot better.

**Shirt...on a shirt. How unoriginal. Who comes up with these things?**

I think it's pretty original...I mean how often do you see a shirt with the word "Shirt" printed on it? But anyway...back to the story. I ran out of the tent and found my mom and dad and everyone. I hugged my parents and Yuffie bounced around everyone.

"Yay! All better! Yay!"

Reno winced. "I dunno about ALL better, but...whatever."

Cait Sith grinned. "Looks like we really did get lucky. I wonder how many of the other Fluffs found someone who'd take them in like this? Anyway, we probably wouldn't have gotten here without Sephi- he's the only one most of them talk to!"

"Yeah!" Yuffie beamed and grabbed me in a headlock to give me a noogie. "Our little bald Fluff came through! YAY SEPHI!"

"Ah! Noooo!" I squirmed and she let go. Mom and Dad were nodding proudly. Reno grumbled but I could tell he sort of agreed. I blushed and grinned. Maybe being furless had its advantages.

It was funny...feeling like a hero. It lasted for a few hours and then I guess I forgot about it when everyone came back tired and beat up. The doctor grumpily handed out potions to all the people who'd tried for Zeio nuts, and then we all sat down for dinner.

We all got handed a piece of fried fish, and then the Captain came around and stuffed our plates full of spinach.

"Gotta fight off the scurvy, boys! Eat your greens or suffer the consequences!"

Everyone groaned so loud, it sounded like Cloud getting woken before noon back when he was a vampire and on blood withdrawal. Make that Cloud and Vinny both together, plus floorboards.

**That's the strangest, most accurate description I've ever heard.**

Why thank you.

So they all ate their fish first and then started disgustedly picking at their spinach. I looked at the greens with a touch of longing. Reno gobbled up his fish and plopped the spinach onto my plate with a sigh. I frowned at it while he walked away.

Jay laughed. "Hey man!" he yelled at the captain. "Couldn't we have something different to fight off the scurvy? Like oranges? They got Vitamin C too!"

Captain frowned. "And where would we get oranges? All our other fresh foods aren't fresh anymore, can't eat 'em. Spinach is all we got left."

Jay chucked and nibbled a leaf. "Whatever ya say, Cap'n."

I finished up my fish and ate a few leaves of spinach. Strangely, I didn't really have an appetite anymore. I wondered where Woffia was, and Tilo and old Teff, and all the other little Fluffs I'd gotten to know a little. Did they get out alright? Did they find someplace to stay, or were they still all floating out in the ocean without food or water or shelter? It made me feel depressed. I got up and slunk off. Jay snickered and whispered at my back-

"Good idea, man. Go bury it somewhere!"

I nibbled on my spinach as I walked to the edge of camp and sat down between two tents. I stared at the patch of forest closest. Other Fluffs might have the advantage back at Round Island...but it was probably true that here, around people...it was easier to get around if you didn't actually look like a Fluff. I sighed and looked mopily at the rest of my spinach. I wished...I wished the Floofers had never come. I wished I was back on the island and that everything was okay, even if I did get pounced on alot by Reno and the others...I wished Reno was well enough to pounce on me again. I picked up the rest of my spinach and threw it sadly outside of the camp. The sun was setting and it was dark in between the tents. I felt nervous being far away from the others, so I picked up my plate and went back to the circle.

"Hey Sephi!" Jay waved at me. "The guys want a story! Tell 'em a story! You're good at stories, you're funny!"

I blinked and blushed. "Huhhh?"

Jay grinned. "Come ooon, it'll be fun. Tell 'em a Fluff story!"

I blinked at Dad and he gave me a funny smile. I sat down. "Um...okay...I'll tell you...about the three Fluffs...and their voyage to Mideel!"

Mom nodded proudly at me to continue.

"Oooh I can tell this one's gonna be good!" Jay said eagerly.

The fire crackled. I coughed and nodded. "Okay. Um. Once upon a time, there were three Fluffs..."


	5. Morning Person

All of us Fluffs crowded into Jay's tent that night- say what you want about him being nosy and obnoxious, he's definitely got a soft spot for creatures in need. We were all pretty cramped in there, but he wouldn't hear a word about any of us sleeping outside or finding someone else to stay with. So it got a little claustrophobic but otherwise...we were all warm, at least. We woke up to awfully loud yelling from the Captain to get up and eat in the next five minutes or we'd have to starve until lunchtime. I was pretty hungry, but I wasn't sure if I felt like being around so many people after spending such a cramped night, so I went to the spot I'd eaten at last night. The spinach leaves I'd thrown out into the open were gone. I ate most of mine and threw a few more out there just because I was curious. Would they be gone when I came back later, at lunch? What was eating them? I got a funny prickle. I sure hoped it wouldn't attract any monsters...

I ran and found Jay's friend, who had also finished his breakfast early...or maybe he hadn't eaten it at all. He had a shadowy smile that made me wonder if he was laughing at me somewhere in his head...but he went into his tent anyway and brought out the practice swords. He was gentler this time, walking me through the steps instead of running me through them like a battering ram...I felt like maybe I actually learned something. I still sucked though.

**I'm sure you did.**

After a couple of panicky sparring matches that ended with me stinging a whole lot, he took my practice sword.

"I've checked out what monsters are in this area, and it's not very likely you could survive an encounter with one, even with my help. So we'll have to wait until we get back to the mainland, there are some weaker monsters there, I think."

My face fell. "Wha? But..."

"Unless you want to die, you stay here in camp. Trust me...this isn't a good place to start."

If I had doggy ears, they would have drooped. As it was, I felt like wilting. "How long until we go back to the continent?"

"A couple more days, maybe. It all depends on how many Zeio nuts we can get within that time."

I whimpered and shuffled over to where my parents were watching Yuffie, Cait Sith, and Reno having a three-way play fight. My mom smiled at me.

"How was your time with Jay's friend?"

**Jay's friend...don't people ever take the time to ask people for their names anymore? Not that I do, but Fluff's ARE supposedly polite, right?**

Uh...it just never came up. I dunno. I STILL don't know his name.

**Huh.**

"It was good," I beamed, even though I still stung all over from the thwacks I hadn't been able to duck away from or block.

"Good."

**...What a boring conversation.**

You're right. I should skip over this part.

**Does anything amusing happen? If so...**

Too late. I'm skipping! HA! Watch me skip! One two three!

**You're so childish!**

Thank you! Anyway...on to the next part.

**DIVIDE**

Thanks to Jay's friend, who was really the only really good fighter in the whole camp, we got enough Zeio nuts so we could head for the continent within a couple of days. So it was back on the ship with everyone, and things were even more cramped, not to mention smelly. My poor Fluff nose could hardly stand it. And then we ran out of spinach. I got kind of sick of fish. But I just remembered...I forgot to tell about the day we left.

Every day when I went to go eat between those two tents on the edge of camp, my spinach from the day before was gone. I wondered what creatures here would eat spinach- not the other members of the camp, I'm sure. Probably not the goblins. Maybe the lizards? I didn't know. Except nobody saw any monsters approaching camp. The only hint I had was that someone had said they saw a reddish thing on their watch one night, which quickly disappeared into the trees.

We were boarding ship early in the morning. It was misty and cold. I was just finishing my spinach, and tossed the last of it into my usual spot. I was tired so I sat there a minute longer than I usually would have, eyes feeling tired and like I couldn't open them much more than halfway. I scrunched them up in a yawn and when I opened them again my spinach was gone and I saw something hovering just on the edge of the trees. My heart jumped like Yuffie on a sugar high and I hopped to my feet, only to stop just as I was about to run.

She was staring at me. Her fur had turned a darker shade of pink...almost red. It wasn't as pale anymore, and it was dirty too. She was skinny and her eyes looked wide and scared. I wasn't even sure if she was who I thought she was. But I thought she could be, and it made me so I couldn't move.

Neither of us said anything. Neither of us moved. I jumped and yelled when Reno poked me in the back with his nose, and grabbed my shirt to drag me backward.

"Stop daydreaming, s'time to go!" he said around a mouthful of my shirt.

I yanked my shirt away from him. "No, Reno- there was...it was her!"

"Hmm?" he blinked. "What?"

I pointed at the trees, but she was gone. Reno blinked at me.

"Who were you talking about, Seph?"

"Uh...um..." I said, distracted by the weird feeling in my stomach. "Nothing. Nobody...I guess I just imagined it!"

"You sure?" Reno said uncertainly.

I shook my head and started walking toward the ship, not sure if I was just suffering from lack of sleep...or if I was really hungry...or why the heck I felt so weird. I sniffled and felt like crying.

Reno blinked at me funny, and kept asking me questions, but I just ran ahead so I could pretend I didn't hear him. We got on the boat and I hid in Jay's cabin for a while until I figured Reno wasn't thinking about asking me questions anymore before coming out.

The trip took a long time. Not as long as when we were floating around on the table, though. Yuffie got seasick on the second day. Everyone made sure to give her plenty of room! She was a little better by the time we reached land, but she was glad to get off the boat more than any of us anyway. Then it was another long trip on foot to the Chocobo Farm. I got into my first fight while we were going there. Jay's friend lent me a sword (well, it was a little small...not like the long impressive one he used) and I came out pretty battered but I got at least a couple hits on that mandra-whatever-it-was. I was pretty pleased with myself, even though I dropped my weapon once and it was really embarrassing.

The Chocobo Farm is a cool place. Jay showed me around. They had a blue chocobo, a green chocobo, a black chocobo, and a yellow chocobo. I'm not sure I remember all their names. I was pretty impressed.

"I didn't even know chocobos could be any color except yellow!" I said. Jay did something SORT of like a giggle...

"Naw man. Blue chocobos cross rivers, Green cross mountains, and the Black one here, he can cross mountains AND rivers! Man, he's a beauty. Took us forever to get him a nice gal chocobo. Now that we got the Zeio nuts, we're gonna get 'em both together and hope that they give us a Gold baby Chocobo. And if they don't, well, we'll just have to try again once we've raced 'em a bit."

"Huh? Racing?" I blinked.

Jay chucked and knocked me on the shoulder. "Man, ya really have been living under a rock! Don't ya know about Chocobo Races at the Gold Saucer?"

I shook my head. "Nuh-uh!"

"Dang! Ya gotta be kidding!" He looked absolutely shocked.

I laughed. "No...what's the Gold Saucer?"

Jay rolled around so loudly the Black chocobo warked and ruffled its feathers. It looked mad. I ran away from it so it wouldn't peck me. I wondered if I'd ever know everything a normal person knew about the Planet and all the things you could do on it. I realized that Round Island sure was out of the way if nobody but the Fluffs knew where it was, and we really didn't know much about the outside world. It made my brain hurt to think that I was miles and miles from home on a continent.

Jay stopped rolling and ruffled my hair, something my mom said she disliked him doing. But she never likes it when my hair's messed up. When we finally got to the Chocobo Farm she ordered everyone to search for a brush, since nobody in the camp had anything more than a comb, and a comb just didn't cut it.

"Heh, we'll get ya there one of these days. Maybe even ride in one of the races, yeah? Oh boy...can' t wait to see the look on your face when we go! You won't know what to look at first!"

I blinked. "Heee...is it cool?"

"Is it cool? It's the greatest fun place on the Planet! Man, I'd say it even beats Icicle Inn...you can snowboard any time, but the races, the battle square...heh, that's more his area-" he nodded toward his friend "...the arcade...the rollercoaster! There's something there everybody'd like!"

I didn't even know what snowboarding or arcades or roller coasters were either but I just nodded and said "Sounds great!"

"Man, if only you knew."

**DIVIDE**

I don't remember exactly how long it took, but one day I was walking around looking at the wild yellow chocobos in the fence, and Yuffie pounced on me and said "SEPHI SEPHI! The birdies laid an EGG!"

She giggled excitedly and practically dragged me over to the stables to see. The mother chocobo looked nervous when Yuffie bounced over so loudly, but after a while, the Captain calmed it down enough and used some greens to get it to stand up so we could see the egg it had been sitting on. It was really big. I'd only recently been introduced to eggs- chicken eggs, of course. The owners of the Chocobo Farm had been feeding them to us for breakfast almost every morning.

I forgot to tell you something else, too. The first night here, the guy who runs the Chocobo Farm just whipped up some homemade hamburgers for us all. He was talking about how he had cows once and how he tried butchering one once when food money was scarce, and how after that he decided it was too much trouble and he'd have Chocobos instead, since you don't have to kill Chocobos for food because they're useful in a whole lot of other ways. For some reason, the thought of Floofers ripping Fluffs up and eating them, and the thought of how Reno had looked after they attacked him came to mind and I asked if I could be excused from the table. After that I couldn't eat meat anymore. Fish was alright for some reason. But other meats I just couldn't eat without feeling sick. For the first month it was really hard. I didn't eat much. Then finally people started noticing and it got a little easier.

Anyway, the Chocobo egg was really big. Yeah. I tried to imagine a little gold chocobo curled up inside it, but I'd never seen a baby chocobo so I didn't know what to imagine, exactly.

Everyone was excited for the weeks when we were waiting for it to hatch. Jay's friend took me out for practice fighting weak monsters alot. He gave me half the money we got off the monsters, because, he said, "I'll have plenty in a while if this all works out". That month I pretty much exhausted the poor chocobo farmer's supply of potions. The doctor eventually decided to take the blue chocobo over to Kalm to restock. I kept the money Jay's friend gave me but never spent any of it- I mean come on, there's no shops out there! And I'd never really bought anything before in my life anyway. Eventually I asked my mom about it and she told me I should send an order to the nearest town for some clothes, since Jay's were a little big for me. So with Jay's help, I sent in the order, and one for a brush, too.

Finally, the day came. I was lying on my little bed in the barn with the rest of my family curled up around me. It was summer now and the nights weren't really cold, but it made us all feel safer. It had been a long time since we'd all slept apart anyway. Most of the crew slept in the barn- there just wasn't enough room in the chocobo farmer's house. The first thing I remember was getting hit on the head with a bouncy ball Jay had bought off the farmer's kid for a couple of gil. I sat up and blinked, straw in my hair and my eyes all sleepy.

"Huh...?"

"Get up, get up!" Jay was pretty much bouncing up and down like Yuffie. I realized now why they got along so well- energy likes more energy, haha. He threw the bouncy ball at me again and I ducked.

"Whyy? It's still dark out..."

"Man, Sephi...if you don't get up early you miss EVERYTHING that's going on! The egg's hatching, come on!"

I rubbed my eyes, feeling a little jumpy excited feeling inside. I got up and stumbled over, trying to pick the straw out of my hair as I followed the beaming Jay over to the yellow mother chocobo's stall. There were already holes in the egg- the baby was just trying to break its way totally free of the shell. I blinked. There were a few other people here, too. Jay's friend, and Captain, and the doctor. I stared at it sleepily as here was a soft cracking sound and the shell fell apart. The mother chocobo spread its wings protectively over the baby, also kind of stepping over it so we couldn't see very well. It made a tiny little wark that didn't really even sound like a wark and walked clumsily over to its mother's side.

"Wow..." I said. But Jay was shaking his head sadly.

"Not a gold, this one. That's just our bad luck. Now we wait till it grows old enough to be set free, then race the mama and try again."

"Why do you race the mom chocobo?" I blinked.

"The higher the class of a chocobo, the more likely you are to get the right kind of baby chocobo. You make their class higher by winning races."

"...oh." I nodded slowly, crouching down to watch the baby chocobo walk around slowly.

"Mmhmm. Still cute and fluffy chocobos…" Jay chucked. "But this one won't do us much good when it comes to crossing oceans."

"So you're going to set it free when it's all grown up?" I asked.

Jay nodded. "Yep. There's plenty of room around here, the land's so good. The chocobos around here get kind of lazy. That's why ya can't find a Wonderful, like this mama here, unless ya go to somewhere that it's a little harder to find food at. Chocobos get either really strong or really weak when it's harder for them to stay alive."

"…oh." I said. I felt like I learned something new every day since I joined this crew.

Jay's friend tapped me on the shoulder. "Hey, you ready? I feel like hitting some monsters." He looked kind of upset.

"Uh…sure!" I said hastily, and ran to go get my short sword. He turned to Jay.

"Go tell the farmer about what happened. Tell him we'll be staying a little longer than we thought."

"Yeah man, I'm right on it."

I dug around in the straw and pulled out my weapon, and was just walking away when Reno grabbed my ankle and I fell flat on my face.

"OW!" I said.

"Hehehe…didn't think I was awake, didja Seph?" he laughed softly.

"Nooo I didn't," I whimpered, then giggled. "I think you owe me a new face…" I turned around so I could sit up, and rubbed my nose.

"You didn't tell me it was hatching," Reno scowled. "Meany."

"I didn't think you wanted to watch," I said, squirming to try and get my foot free from his grasp.

"And now I bet you're going off somewhere again without me, huh?"

"Uh…yeah," I tugged on my leg. "Jay's friend says he wants to go beat up some monsters. He looked kind of upset."

Reno growled. "Dangit Seph, you're always going off somewhere with that guy. We never see you anymore. I'm so bored just hanging around this place, it's worse than fleabites. There's nothing to do! And you still won't tell me what happened the day we left."

I felt guilt poking me a little. "Um…well, I'm trying to learn how to fight as good as everyone else!"

"Heh…you still can't beat any of us in a play fight." Reno smirked.

I frowned. "Well…I'm learning my own way how to do it!"

Reno put his head down on his paws and heaved a huge sigh. "Why? I don't think you even like fighting. There's no point in learning how to beat up everything, I mean we're not going anywhere. We have nowhere to go. We'll probably be hanging around with these people for at least the next couple of years, right? They can take on anything that might try and get us. So why bother?"

I squirmed, even though he'd already let go of my foot, because he'd just hit the spot where I wasn't sure. I really didn't like fighting all that much. I felt guilty killing them off, even if they were monsters that had just almost killed ME. I just knew I felt like I had to learn. At first it had been because I was afraid. I was scared that if the Floofers ever found us again, I wouldn't be able to help. And I was afraid that maybe if I'd known how to fight back then, Reno wouldn't have the scars he did now. That was kind of silly, now, or at least, it felt silly. And Reno was right…Jay's friend alone had been able to take on any and all the monsters we'd encountered so far. So why? Why did I feel like I had to learn, no matter what?

Reno's eyes suddenly widened, and he lifted his head. "Hey. You're not thinking…of going back, are you?"

I froze and a prickle like if my nonexistent fur was lifting started, and a funny noise came from my throat. Reno stared.

"It was our home!" I said finally. "Teff said the Fluffs were there to take care of the materia while it grew, but now there's no Fluffs there, the Floofers are everywhere….and…it was ours!"

"Hey, you coming?" Jay's friend's voice made my jump and shook me out of it.

"So. You ARE thinking of going back…huh?" Reno said quietly. He looked kind of scared.

"No…I dunno," I mumbled, hanging my head and shaking it. I stood up and grabbed my weapon.

"Seph…we can't take it back. There's only a few of us," Reno's torn up ears flicked back in a worried look.

I looked at him for a few seconds, but Jay's friend's voice called me again and I turned and followed him out of the stables. The sun was just coming up, so I only caught a few seconds of that bluish silver before-the-sunrise world, but I realized what Jay had said about missing things when you don't get up early, and I decided to try and not miss those things anymore.


	6. The Deal

I plopped down on a rock and panted. It was getting hot now, and it was almost time for lunch. I was hungry…me and Jay's friend hadn't waited around for breakfast before heading out into the fields. He was on a rampage. With the weaker monsters, he sliced them up into pieces before I even got a chance to take a hit…which was nice, but made me wonder why he'd brought me along. He still gave me half the money though. By now he was slowing down a little. I don't know if it was because he wasn't upset anymore, or if he was just getting tired. I didn't have the nerve to ask…he didn't look like he wanted any questions. So I was surprised when he asked me one.

He walked over, looking hot and a little tired. He sat down next to me on the rock and we both just kind of…didn't say anything. We could see a small herd of wild chocobo a little ways away but we didn't bother them. When both our breathing had gotten quiet enough that the silence was uncomfortable, he sighed.

"So you're thinking of taking back your Island?"

I jumped. I should have known he was listening in. I laughed nervously, but was kind of embarrassed to say it.

"Um…I guess."

"Hmm." He sat down on the ground and leaned back against the rock I was sitting on, thinking. I watched him curiously, wondering if he thought it was a stupid idea or not.

"These…Floofers," he said finally. "Are they what gave you and the red Fluff your injuries?"

"Huh? Oh…yeah it was them," I said quickly. I'd almost forgotten about the injuries. The one on my head had left a scar, a tiny little bald spot, but I had enough hair that it covered it pretty well. It was small, anyway. I'd almost forgotten. How could I have forgotten, though? Reno's scars were very obvious, and I saw them every day.

"You wanna tell me more about them?"

I stared in disbelief. "You mean you believe me?"

He laughed softly. "I didn't say that. I'm just asking you to tell me more."

I thought about that. He didn't say that he believed me…but he didn't say he didn't. I grinned.

"Okay. They're small…about half the size of Yuffie…and they attack in huge groups, kinda swarm all over…the…the thing they're going to eat…" I swallowed, remembering.

Jay's friend tilted his head to show he was listening. "Go on."

I nodded slowly. "Kay. They have sharp teeth…and big claws. Their teeth have weird acid poison stuff in them…that's why it took me and Reno so long to heal, and why I was sick when you guys found us. They jump onto what they're attacking until they're covering it and they…they eat it…"

"Are they fast?"

"They're fast. And they can jump really high and fast and stuff."

"Hmm." He stared over at the chocobo herd. "And you say they drove all the Fluffs off the island? How many of you were there?"

"I don't know…there were a lot. My family's small. There were at least ten other families."

I felt shaky just thinking about it all again, but Jay nodded finally.

"Any idea what their element is?"

"Huh? Element?" I blinked.

"Yes." He stood up and turned to look at me. "Don't you remember? I was telling you just yesterday."

"Huh? Oh yeah!" I nodded quickly, feeling stupid for forgetting. Elements. "Some monsters have weak points where you can hit them with certain magic attacks and it does more damage…right?"

"Right. Like machine monsters. They are weaker against lightning attacks."

"Hmm…" I blinked thoughtfully. "I don't know…I remember…they burned the island when we were leaving. I think they did. I remember a glow like fire when we were running away, but it was in the middle of the night, and it's all blurry…I'm not sure."

"So it would be safe to guess that they at least have some fire element built into them, unless they've somehow learned to use materia. That would be unusual." Jay's friend looked thoughtful."

I blinked. "They didn't…come during wintertime either. They only came when it was warming up."

"Ah. That's another clue." He began pacing a little. "If they are fire monsters, they'd be weakest during the cold season. You said the winters there are very cold, didn't you?"

"Yeah, I did," I said, wondering what he was thinking.

He turned to me suddenly. "How long does it take for a materia to grow on Round Island?"

"Huh?" I said, confused by the turn in the conversation. "I dunno. The first one was taken around the time when I was born, and-"

"Wait. The Knights of Round materia has already been taken?" He looked stunned.

I nodded slowly. "By the heroes of the Meteor legend. They took it to fight Sephiroth…the elder Fluff of the island told us."

Jay's friend turned his back on me for a second, looking kind of shaky. When he'd turned back around though, his face looked normal.

"You're sure?" he asked me.

"Uh-huh."

"So…it's gone? There's no materia there anymore?"

"There was one growing when I left," I said. "That's part of why I wanna go back. Teff said it's a Fluff's job to protect a materia while it's growing, and the ones that grow on our island are the most special and rare in the world!"

He looked relieved. "So how long will it take this one to grow?"

I shrugged. "I don't know…you could ask my mom and dad, they might know."

"You ask them when we get back, tell me what they say," he decided. "Do you think it could be a second Knights of Round…? No…the same monsters can't be summoned with two different materia…that's unheard of…" He frowned.

I blinked. What was he thinking? I really didn't know. Why all these questions?

"…how come you wanna know?" I finally asked.

He looked up at me. I was sitting on the rock hugging my legs, and he had been pacing through the long grass. He stared at me, then got that same smile he'd gotten the second time he gave me sword lessons…like he was laughing. He came over and held out a hand.

"I think I'll make a deal with you, little Fluff-Sephiroth." I blinked. He'd never called me that before. "You race our Wonderful mother chocobo at the Gold Saucer until she gets to S class. I'll have Jay ride the Black. In other words, you stay with us until we get our Gold, and I'll help you take back your Island."

…I stared at him to check if he was serious. I guess he was…he looked serious. But he was smiling too. It was a little different than any of the other looks I'd ever seen him wear. He looked excited and expectant. I stared at his hand, then took it.

"Okay."

He suddenly looked serious. "Now you understand, this means you're stuck with us until we get a Gold Chocobo? It might take us years. You understand that right?"

I hesitated. Years? That took some thinking about. Did I really want to have to commit myself for such a vague period of time?

"And you'll have to follow our orders too. You'd be an official member of the crew, just like the rest of us, and you'd have to do what the Captain says at all times."

I swallowed nervously. I wasn't sure anymore. Did I really have what it took? Could I do it? What if they NEVER got a Gold Chocobo? I'd be stuck with them forever. But…what difference did it make? We had nowhere to go anyway. Might as well stay with them…why not? And why not be doing something while we were at it…working toward getting our home back. I nodded finally.

"Yeah, I got it. I'll race for you."

Jay's friend grinned. That was the first time I'd seen him grin…it was really a surprising thing. He shook my hand hard, then slapped me on the back almost as hard as Jay did it.

"Welcome to the crew, then, little Sephiroth. Let's go get some lunch, and then I'll have to start teaching you how to ride."

I grinned. "Oh yeah." Obviously, racing involved riding a chocobo. I was nervous still, but I tried not to show it. "Yeah. Let's go."

* * *

That night there was a tiny little itsy-bitsy celebration. But first Jay's friend had to convince the Captain. Well…or get close to convincing anyway. The Captain seemed pretty doubtful.

"Are you saying we should let this little Fluff ride OUR ONLY Wonderful chocobo? He doesn't even know how to ride!"

Jay's friend frowned. "Captain, he's willing to race for us for free. Not even Jay was willing to do that. You said yourself we'd be hard-pressed to find a rider light enough, since the mother Chocobo is so small. He's light! Look at him!"

He picked me up as easily as a doll and practically shoved me into the Captain's arms. The Captain looked startled, then grabbed me, hefted me once, then put me down.

"I don't know," he said slowly. "He sure is light, but do you think he's strong enough, on the other hand? Mama chocobo's not a seasoned racer, she's likely to try and pull ahead too soon and run out of energy. I don't think he'd be strong enough to keep her steady."

He nodded. "I'll make him strong enough."

I felt funny, just standing there with them talking about me.

Then he and the Captain had a quick little staring match, and the Captain gave in with a sigh. Nobody could beat Jay's friend at staring contests.

"Fine, I'll give him a chance. But if he doesn't learn quick enough, I put it on your head to find us a rider."

Jay's friend nodded. "Yes sir."

Not five minutes later, I found myself on top of the Black Chocobo, clinging for dear life with Jay giggling his head off on the other side of the fence.

"He doesn't like me!" I cried nervously, while Charky (That's what Jay called him) fidgeted beneath me and fluffed his feathers and "WARK!"ed really loud. Jay's friend had one hand on my shoulder, one hand on Charky's bridle.

"Calm down. He can feel you're nervous."

"He's scary!" I whimpered. Jay rolled, until his friend yelled, "Shut up Jay! You're making it worse!" and Jay stopped.

He whispered a couple words to the chocobo to get it to calm down, and it stopped fidgeting a tiny bit, but I was still scared. Next he turned to me with a serious look.

"Now…sit up straight."

I took a deep breath and tried to do so. It's harder than you might think…my first instinct was to lean forward and throw my arms around the Black's neck. Eventually I managed to make it into a semi straight position, but then Charky warked and sidestepped and I found myself clinging to his shoulder feathers again.

"No, don't worry. Calm down. You ready to ride or not?"

I started shaking my head, but stopped. I forced out a tiny little "Yes…", but it was definitely forced. I had to do this though.

"Okay. Now take the reins." He held them out to me. I blinked at them while I was slowly straightening, feeling like they might bite me if I took them.

"Take them," Jay's friend repeated firmly. I took them, and sat there nervously.

"Now…you hang on with your legs, mostly. Wrap them tight around his middle, but not too tight, or he'll think you're telling him to go."

I blinked nervously. "How do I know if it's too tight? Why can't I just hang on with my hands?"

"Because your hands will be holding the reins. What else are you gonna steer with, your teeth?"

Jay rolled again. Charky made a funny sound and jerked his head. I yelled and let go of the reins. Jay's friend sighed and picked them up and forced them back into my hands.

"Don't let go. Ever."

I swallowed and nodded nervously. "Okay, I'll try!"

"Now…I'm gonna start walking him. You just sit up straight, hold on with your legs, get used to the motions, alright?"

I nodded mechanically, silent even though inside I felt like crying and yelling at somebody to hurry up and get me off this scary bird thing.

**You…are pathetic. It's just a chocobo. I've never heard of anybody with any sense being killed by a chocobo.**

Um…Rae says someone in her party was once.

**Like I said. I've never heard of anybody with any sense being killed by a chocobo.**

That's mean, Sephiroth!

**Of course it is. Who do you think I am?**

…Sephiroth? Anyway…I guess you're right. But whatever…you interrupted the story again. Jay's friend walked the chocobo around and I tried to calm my nerves down and Jay tried to stop giggling so hard. It was all actually going pretty fine until Yuffie ran out into the field straight toward us yelling "YAY SEPHI! RIDE EM CHOCOBOY!" and Charky freaked out and jerked away from Jay's friend and started running. I went "Ah..ahh…AAHH!" and fell off almost immediately. I could hear Jay's laughter louder than ever from where I lay in the tall grass.

"Owww…" I whined. Jay's friend grabbed me and dragged me to my feet.

"Everything alright?"

"Yeah, but-" I began.

"Good. Now help me get the Black."

He started walking quickly toward Charky and I followed him, feeling sore and scared and discouraged. Maybe I couldn't ride in the races after all. I had no idea it was going to be this hard. Jay giggled quieter and ran out to help.

"Hey man, maybe we should just start him off on Sylkis. He's pretty easygoing, right? It'd keep the guy's nerves from snapping n' maybe he can work his way up faster if he has a little confidence at the start, whadda ya think? "

He thought about that. I could tell he was thinking. Jay chucked. "And maybe we should give Charky some Pahsana greens, eh?"

"You know we don't have any of those."

"So? We can probably buy some, right?" Jay grinned.

His friend sighed. "Even if we could, I wouldn't. He's tame enough for you to ride him, and I wouldn't want to take away his fight. That's probably what will get him through the races."

Jay scratched his head. "Whatever ya say, man. But I still say we should start the little guy on Sylkis- he seems more his type."

"Alright…you go get Sylkis," he sighed. "I'll get the Black ready for a practice run."

I blinked. Sylkis? Oh yeah…that was the Green Chocobo. Jay seemed to be the lucky one who got to give them all their pet names- he'd chosen Sylkis I think because that was the Green Chocobo's favorite kind of green…and he'd thought it was funny to name a Green Chocobo after a green.

I sighed, relieved but embarrassed. Sylkis DID seem a lot nicer and patient than Charky…but I sure wished I wasn't so stinking scared. Yuffie tackled me in the middle of my sad thinking.

"ACK! Yuffie! I just got up off the ground…! Let me up!"

"Y'know what mom says, Sephiii? She says you need to keep getting up off the ground no matter how many times you get knocked d…down!" Yuffie giggled hyperly.

I blinked. "Um…I'm not sure this is exactly what she meaaant…"

"Sooo?" Yuffie giggled. "Hee I'm jealous…you get to ride chocobos…no fair. The chocobos don't like me…"

"I wonder why," I mused, and laughed, then shoved her off. She hopped away. I hurried to catch up to Jay's friend, who was just cornering Charky and calming him down. I slowed and stopped a little ways away. He opened up the gate and led the Black out onto an area where a rough circle-ish track had been cut in the tall grass, shutting it behind him. A few seconds later, Jay came out with Sylkis and jogged over to where I was sitting on the fence. He grinned and got the Green Chocobo inside the fenced area, then waved bye to me and ran over to mount Charky, giving Sylkis' reins to me to hold. I blinked at the Green uncertainly, but he just ruffled his wings lazily and scratched a bit at the ground. I grinned in relief. Yeah, he was definitely not as scary as Charky.

So I swung my head around to watch Jay and his friend. Jay was up on Charky and letting him dance around a little bit. His friend just shook his head, glanced once at me, took out his PHS, pushed a few buttons, then told Jay to get in position. Jay rode Charky out to a certain spot on the track, and made him stop and sit still. His friend stood there on the edge, staring at his PHS for a few seconds, then went "Ready….NOW!" and Charky bolted. Sylkis warked excitedly- he was watching it too. Jay went "WOOOO!" and leaned forward and urged Charky on. The Black ran faster than I'd ever seen anything run. I sweatdropped. If that's how fast they went in races…I had a long way to go.

Once Jay and the Black had run once around the track, Jay's friend pushed a button on his PHS and yelled out some numbers, then put the phone in his pocket and walked over to join me while Jay and Charky ran out into the tall grass.

"You ready? Get up!"

I blinked and went "Oh!" and scrambled up clumsily onto Sylkis. He just stood there patiently. I giggled in relief. Jay's friend just muttered, then sighed.

"Alright. You got the reins?"

I nodded. "Yep."

"You hanging on with your legs?"

"Uh-huh…!"

He nodded back at me once. "Okay, then kick him."

"…huh?" I blinked.

"You heard me. Kick him."

"But why!"

"Because I said so, that's why!" he yelled. I meeped and shut up, then hurried up and kicked. Sylkis shot forward into a trot, but it felt like a million miles per hour to me. I yelped and was about to lunge forward and grab feathers again, but Jay's friend just shot me a look and said "Don't even think about it!" and I swallowed and just kept my balance, even though I had my eyes half-shut in fear of what was going to happen. He directed me to turn Sylkis with the reins but I shouldn't have bothered…he was just jogging laps around the field anyway, he turned before I even started pulling. I bounced up and down on that bird like a sack of…I don't know. A sack of something bouncy. It kind of hurt…I guess it would've hurt more without all those feathers. I clutched those reins as if I was one of the three Fluffs of legend holding on to the shining fur rope of Kana-tara-furio in the middle of drowning in an ocean storm. After the third time around the field I asked "Can I stop nowww!"

"No."

The tenth time around, I realized I wasn't all that scared anymore and was keeping my balance better and the bouncing didn't hurt as much. But I still asked, when we passed Jay's friend, "Can I stop NOW?"

"Nope," he said, and slapped Sylkis so he broke into a slow run.

"AAH!" I yelled, which only made him go faster, and Jay's friend was shouting "Don't let go of the reins!" at me, and I managed not to only because I was so used to clutching the reins so hard by now that I couldn't have let go if I wanted to. Ten more times around the field. "Can we stop NOWW!", another "No" paired up with "Just keep it up, silvery," and he made a funny whistle that made Sylkis run even faster…by now I was close to giving up on ever getting off that chocobo again…I thought maybe Jay's friend was determined to fuse me to the bird's back. In a way I guess he was. Later he'd give me that lecture about being one with the chocobo…or whatever…but yeah. For now I just felt like a permanent sack of potatoes tied on to its feathery green back. I was getting pretty sore too…

"Okay, now you get to use the reins to slow him down."

"Huhh?"

"Pull on them!"

I pulled. Ow. My fingers hurt. Sylkis was still running. I pulled more.

"Harder than that, come on."

I pulled till my hands were as far back as my shoulders. Jay's friend laughed. "Creep your fingers up the reins…you'll have more to pull on that way."

"Huhhh?" I said again, but kind of figured out what he meant. I pulled in more and didn't feel so stupid…and Sylkis started slowing down and doing a funny side-steppy dance. I think I was accidentally pulling on one of the reins more than the other. I evened them out and Sylkis straightened out but started running again so I had to pull in even more. It took about five times around the field to get him to stop. By then my arms hurt.

"Strong bird, isn't he?" Jay's friend remarked. I panted and nodded, feeling like my fingers were about to fall off.

"Alright, get off. That's good for today."

I felt kind of shaky and stuff. I had to pretty much pry my own fingers off the reins and then kind of half-fell off Sylkis. Jay was leading Charky back into the stables and passed by laughing.

"Hey Seph! Good job- first time he tried to teach me to ride, I fell off four times out of five! Either he's going easy on you, or you're better than we thought!"

"Ughhh…" I sat up. "Oww…sooore…"

"You'll get used to it, and after a while you'll get to where riding doesn't bother you," Jay's friend said, offering me a hand this time instead of just dragging me up. I took it and he helped me up, then patted me on the back.

"ARE you going easy on me…?" I asked, wincing as I tried to walk and my legs ached.

He got that shadowy smile. "Maybe a little. But just you wait…we'll make you a racer."

"Well…" I panted, stumbling awfully. "I sure hope you're right about getting used to it…ow."

"Hehe," Jay said while we walked in. He was rubbing Charky down. "He's always right, don't ya know?"

"Hardly," his friend said.

"Aw come off it…ya said to me when we found this guy 'He could get us somewhere, if he really does know about Knights of Round,' and here we are!"

His friend's mouth twitched. "And just where are we, exactly?"

"On our way to getting our Gold, dummy," Jay teased.

"Well…we'd better hope so."

I grinned uncomfortably. There they went again…talking about me. Jay's friend seemed to notice and tapped my shoulder.

"Let's go, dinner should be on soon. And keep our deal quiet for me, alright?"

"Huh? How come?" I followed him toward the house.

"I doubt anyone else believes you come from where you say you do. Let's just say they'd think it was stupid of me to say I'd help you out. Not that I care…but it'll just make it easier for both of us."

"Oh…okay," I murmured.

"You'll take care of Sylkis for us, won't you Jay?" his friend said with a smirk.

"Eh, sure sure, just leave him over there," Jay grumbled happily.

* * *

Okay, now for the itsy bitsy party part. We got inside and random members of the crew grinned from the kitchen table and the floor and benches scattered around the room and raised their glasses of water or milk or other more questionable drinks. Everybody seemed really cheerful except the doctor and the Captain. I watched them all watch me while I sat down on the floor where all the rest of my family was. Jay grabbed a glass of juice and lifted it up so it spilled on someone who was sitting nearby and they both laughed.

"To the Gold, and our little Fluff Rider!" he giggled. Everyone grinned and toasted to it. I really wonder sometimes why they call that a toast. I mean, it would make more sense if they all lifted pieces of toast. Or did toasting come before toast? Either way, it doesn't really seem to make sense to me. But I blushed and ducked.

Someone plopped a big bowl of spaghetti in front of me and I stared in surprise. Yuffie gasped and went "AWW LUCKYYY!" and Reno swiped a noodle and Cait Sith thwapped him and laughed. I just blinked and blinked and stared in wonder. It had been forever since I'd had pasta. The smell of the sauce and the cheese and…I suddenly noticed that there wasn't any bits of meat in the sauce either. I looked up at the farmer and his wife. They smiled at me. I grinned.

"Wow…thanks!"

Captain shook his head. "I don't see what all the fuss is about- he's hardly a racer yet."

Jay's friend smiled. "Oh, but he will be. You should have seen him keep his seat today. I'm sure he'll do even better tomorrow."

Everyone laughed at that. I wasn't sure if they agreed or if they thought it was the most funny thing Jay's friend had ever said. I grabbed a nearby fork shyly and started digging into my spaghetti, feeling like everyone was watching. I slurped a noodle.

"Mm…it's good!" I sighed contentedly. The farmer's wife smiled even bigger.

Everyone else toasted again- "To the Gold!" -and turned back to eating their own meals, talking about chocobo races and the gold saucer and good old times back at home and what they'd all do once they found the Knights of Round materia and got the money they'd been promised for helping out. I ate my spaghetti quietly and wondered what Jay and his friend were talking about over in the corner. Finally I was full and gave the rest to the rest of my family, who began to cheerfully bicker over who got more or less of it. Then someone broke out ice cream and everyone REALLY got excited. I'm afraid I might have overdone it. By the time we all went to bed, my stomach hurt a little. But I was happy when I snuggled up with everyone and started falling asleep in the middle of a nest of fur and straw and blankets. I was just starting into a dream about edible materia candies when Reno bit my ear.

"Owieee!" I sniffled and rolled over. "What'd you do that for?"

"How come you're racing with them?" Reno whispered. I guess he likes getting to the point straight off. I rubbed my ear. If he kept this up they might be as ripped up as his own within another year.

"Cause…" I started, remembering how I'd promised Jay's friend to keep the secret to myself. "Because…um…they asked me to."

That wasn't exactly a lie, but it still felt weird not being able to share the whole truth. Reno could tell.

"That's not the real reason, Seph, I can tell. Why don't you ever tell us things anymore?"

Man I felt guilty. I rolled over onto my stomach and put my head on my arms. "I dunno…I'm tired."

"So? Come on Sephi…we're your family, you GOTTA tell us!" Reno whined.

I whimpered. "I can't though!"

"Why not?" Reno said, a little loudly. Mom rolled over and mumbled, "S'time to sleep boys…"

"Because I just can't!" I sniffled, all muffled. "They told me not to!"

"Sephi…you don't have to do what they tell you, y'know," Reno huffed. "It's not like they're your parents or anything."

I didn't say anything to that. I DID have to do what they told me, now. I'd made a deal. I shivered. I wished I could tell. I still didn't understand why I couldn't. After a while Reno went back to sleep, I think, but I stayed up a long time, thinking.


	7. Run run run!

Jay got me up early again the next morning. Man, I'd never had such a hard time waking up. The first time the bouncy ball hit me I jerked awake, half sat up, then fell back over. I said "Yeah…I'm coming…" and meant it but then…somehow…my eyes opened when the ball hit me again and I wondered when they'd closed. It went on like that for about half an hour, until finally Jay dragged me outside and splashed some water on my head.

"AAH!" I gasped, wiping the water off my face, or trying to. "That's cold! Brrr…and my hair's all wet…"

"Oh yeah, that reminds me!" Jay said, and whipped out a little elastic thingy. "He told me ya gotta tie your hair back. Sometimes it can get in the way when you're racing, y'know? He said your bangs'll probably be most of the problem, but I'm guessing he was right when he said ya wouldn't let us cut 'em?"

I jumped. "Whaa? Cut? No!" I grabbed my bangs in both hands.

"Okay, okay. He didn't think so. Anyway, some guys race with such weirdo mops…it's amazing they can even see. So I guess you'll be fine but tie the rest back anyway."

I took the elastic and did as I was told. I hated it when my hair was wet…blegh. Then I tried standing up…oh my gosh. It hurt. I cried. Well, almost. My arms, legs, fingers…owwww!

"I thought he said it would get betterrr!" I wailed, hobbling along with Jay supporting me. Jay chucked.

"It will. Just gets worse before it gets better, ya know what I mean?"

"Nuh-uh," I whimpered. "It huuurts! Can I take a potion or something?"

Jay giggled. "Sorry man, the doc's banned ya from potions 'cept in a life or death situation. Says you're going through them like candy and half the time you're not even hurt."

I blushed. I had sort of gotten addicted to them lately…they sure were yummy…but I hadn't taken them without needing them too much. Just once or twice.

"But I think I'm gonna diiie," I moaned. "Waaa…"

"Aw whatever. Ya only had one fall yesterday, I lived through my second day after falling like a dozen times on my first. Was a pretty painful living but I lived just the same."

I whimpered all the way to Sylkis' stall. Jay tried to show me how to put the bridle and stuff on but I was kind of distracted by the aching in my legs, so I only caught about half of what he was saying. Then I limped out with them into the field, where Jay's friend was waiting with Charky, who looked really restless. Jay hopped over the fence and onto Charky's back in an instant, and then Jay's friend nodded at me.

"Alright, mount up."

I tried not to groan too loud, but when I tried to heave myself onto Sylkis' back, I fell off halfway up. Sylkis floofed his feathers and went "wahahaark". Sounded like he was laughing at me. I sniffled and got up and tried again. I made it this time, but needed a little help from Jay's friend. I sure was sore. Sore as…I dunno. I was just REALLY sore. This was almost worse than Floofer bites, except I wasn't dizzy and sick. Just hurt a lot.

"You ask your parents about it?" He whispered up at me, once I'd gotten settled in.

"Huh? Oh…no I forgot. I'll ask them today," I nodded.

"You do that." He raised his voice to a more normal level. "Okay, we're going to have a quick run around the track. A little competition between you and Jay, Sylkis and Charky. You're going to be using the reins a lot more this time. Chocobos have a certain amount of stamina. That means their energy level and endurance…how long it lasts and how much of it you use up at certain times in the race can mean the difference between winning and losing, so you have to learn how to pull back at the right times, and when to just let him run."

I sweatdropped. "How am I supposed to know all that?"

"With practice. It's different for each chocobo. Sylkis is pretty steady most of the time. If you pull him back in the very beginning just enough, he'll stay mostly the same speed the entire race. That can be good…sometimes. But if you let him, he'll slow down near the end. When you race Jay and the Black, you need to urge Sylkis to his top speed at the very end. I don't think he'll win against Charky...the Black's way too fast. But this is just a practice run, so we'll see. I'll tell Jay to try pulling him back a bit, it'll be good practice for both of you."

I felt fluttery things in my stomach at the thought of racing Sylkis against Charky, but I nodded.

"Okay, now I'll walk out to the track. You get practice directing now- that'll be useful too. You might have to direct the chocobo to cut in between other chocobo at just the right spot during a real race, so it's good to learn how to direct now."

He started walking toward the track. I nudged Sylkis tentatively and he started walking after Jay's friend, but then saw something apparently yummy-looking and started off in a different direction. I pulled nervously, and managed to get him back in the right direction, but he seemed to have a definite curve toward the left. We got to the rough racetrack thing and Sylkis stepped up next to Charky with a floof if his wings. Charky warked and scratched the ground impatiently. Jay saluted me cheerfully and I blinked.

"Ready to rumble?" he laughed.

"Uhhh I guess..." I meeped. I really didn't feel ready.

"Pull the Black in the beginning, Jay," his friend commanded. "And don't let him get too far ahead. He needs to learn to listen when you pull back anyway, this'll be good practice. I still expect you to win, but try not to."

Jay nodded. "Sure man, I got it covered."

"Alright then," he said, pulling out his PHS again. "Ready..."

I jumped and made sure I had a good handle on the reins and the chocobo. I stared at the track in front of me and gulped down trying to swallow my nervousness.

"Go!"

"HIYA!" Jay kicked Charky- it wasn't much of a kick. He didn't really need to. Charky was already ready to go full speed. Sylkis started off without even a hint from me. I didn't know if he was going full speed or not, so I just hung there until I heard Jay's friend yelling at me.

"Pull him back just a tiny bit!"

"Okay!" I called back, and pulled a little. Sylkis brought his head in and settled down but kept running.

"Good, now just sit tight until the last leg of it."

Jay was pulling back on Charky quite a bit, I could tell by the way he kept saying "Whoa man, slow up, slow up, gotta let the greeny catch up!"

I dunno if he meant me or Sylkis when he said greeny, but I guess he could have meant both. Charky didn't care about letting anyone catch up- he just wanted to run. Still, Charky seemed miles ahead, even though Jay was trying his best. Sylkis was running but no faster than before. It was still fast though. I winced at every bump, but after a while it just kind of numbed up and I didn't notice it. Things passed by in a blur and all I could see was green and black in front of me and all I could hear was the running of the chocobos and Jay talking to Charky. Dust kept flying into my face- Charky was kicking up a ton of it up ahead.

"Come on man, have a little pity y'know?" Jay told his bird.

"Let him loose!" Jay's friend called to me.

I jumped and kicked Sylkis and the Green shot off. Now it seemed like all he wanted to do was catch up to the Jay and the Black, and he stretched out his neck and I loosened up on the reins and leaned forward eagerly as we drew nearer. But Charky wasn't about to let us win. Right as we were up coming up behind, Jay went "Whoa!" and Charky turned into a black blur and shot across the finish line. Sylkis warked and flapped his wings, unsettling me, and then he ran right off the track. Jay's friend ran after us.

"Pull up!" he yelled.

I pulled really suddenly and Sylkis screeched to a halt. I tumbled off and landed in the springy grass.

"Arg," I said, and sat up. "More soreness..."

Jay's friend laughed. "That was good. You're still clumsy as nothing else in directing, but that only counts as your second fall, which is pretty impressive."

I sighed and forced myself to stand up and take Sylkis' bridle. Jay's friend nodded. "Alright. Get back on. You and Jay are going for another ride. Not a race, though."

"Hey man, I can't until after lunch!" Jay yelled from the track. "Captain made me promise to spend some time checking up on the little chocobo and letting the mama out into the field. Then he told us all to fix the roof on the house, you know, the spot we broke up last time we were here?"

"Oh...that's right," Jay's friend said, frowning. "Well you do that, but then after lunch you take little Sephiroth out to the mithril mine."

Jay stared at his friend. "You serious? Out past the Zolom? Man, you know I don't like going around that place."

"You'll be fine. I'll give you a summon materia to use if you do run into the Zolom, but the point is for him to have to direct the chocobo well enough to avoid the snake."

I blinked. "Zolom? Huh?"

"You'll see soon enough," Jay's friend said. "But for now I guess you'll just have some free time."

I blinked and was about to say okay, but something suddenly struck me as weird. "Okay...but how come you can't just go with me?"

Jay's friend stared at me stiffly and I wished I hadn't asked. Then he shook his head and said, "You just go...do something with the other Fluffs."

I nodded and walked painfully off to the stables, wondering why Jay's friend wouldn't ride chocobos if he knew so much about them, and how come Jay and his friend were friends when they were so different, and why they wanted a materia from Round Island so bad. I yawned and curled up next to the last of those of my family who were still asleep- Cait Sith and Dad. Mom and Yuffie and Reno I guess were eating breakfast. I wasn't all that hungry...and I mostly just wanted to rest my poor sore muscles. I listened to the noises of Jay's friend putting Sylkis away and heard him mutter something before he left. Then Jay came noisily in and took the mama and baby chocobo to the field outside. Finally I couldn't stand it anymore. I couldn't fall asleep, as tired as I was. I got up and sighed and went out and leaned against the fence with my chin on my arms and my arms on the top rail and watched Jay playing with the baby chocobo. It made me grin. The little things feathers stuck out cutely and it was so small compared to its mother. I realized that even though I was small for my age I was probably the youngest person here, except for the farmer's little boy who'd sold Jay the bouncy ball. He was probably...I dunno, seven. Anyway, it struck me that Jay and his friend seemed, mostly, to respect me as if I was their age, or one of their younger brothers or something. I wondered why...I mean, I was just a silly little Fluff. But mom always says "Don't question when people are kind!" so I decided not to worry about it. I just watched Jay pet the little bird and play with it. Then I got squished against the fence when Yuffie ran into me from behind.

"Save me Sephi! Reno's gonna get me!" she giggled. I started breathing again and laughed.

"Guess he'll have to get you then, 'cause he sure isn't gonna get me!" I said, and ducked under the fence, ran across the field and ducked under the fence on the other side.

"Heyy no fair!" Yuffie said, right as she was tagged. "I can't go through there, the chocobos'll peck me!"

I heard Reno yell "Hey, let's make it hide and go seek tag! You're still it, Yuffie!"

I grinned and ran out into the tall grass and crouched down, hiding. I knew I could get attacked by monsters out here, but I'd proven I could make out okay against the weaker ones, and it was still close to the farm, so I figured I'd be okay. Reno and Yuffie were making quite a bit of noise, tagging each other right and left, and then Reno apparently found a hiding place and Yuffie was running around yelling "Come out come out!" and started running around randomly. I moved to a thicker place in the grass so she wouldn't see me, now that she was walking around the edge of the chocobo field. She was sniffing me out. Oh no! But then I remembered I probably had a bunch of chocobo smell on me too because of the ride I'd had earlier. Still...she kept getting closer.

I felt so restless. I really wanted to just run, actually...run and run, even though my legs were sore. I wanted to start feeling free again. It was weird...it had only been a day since I'd made the promise with Jay's friend and become a member of the crew, but somehow I already felt kind of...restricted. Kind of tied up. I blinked in surprise when I started crying. What! No! I had nothing to be sad about! I rubbed my eyes. completely confused, and Yuffie pounced on me when she saw the movement.

"I GOT YOU I GOT YOU HAHAHA YOU'RE IT!"

I rolled over and buried my face in the grass and giggled even though I was still crying. "Yeah you did. Better run before I get you!"

"Oh! Oh yeah!" Yuffie pounced off my back, which in turn threw me even further to the ground, and I just lay there for a second trying to dry my face off and going "What in the Planet is going on?" and hoping that I would look normal enough in the next few seconds for nobody to notice I'd been crying. Yuffie had sprung away like a deer but then stopped like one in the headlights and looked around nervously.

"Seeeph?" she squeaked. "You're sneaking up on me huhh?"

I sprang forward and caught her legs. She fell over. "You're it AGAIN!" I giggled and ran as fast as I could to the barn, where I quickly dived into the Wonderful Chocobo's empty stall and closed the door. It was a little smelly but whatever, Yuffie ran right past. I panted and squeezed my eyes shut, hoping that would stop the flow of wateriness...but it didn't. They rolled and rolled down my face. I wiped them off until my hands and arms were soaking wet. Finally they started to slow down and I just sat there staring at a leaf floating in the water bowl. What was wrong? I didn't even feel sad anymore, just frustrated that it wouldn't stop, and confused. I jumped when there was a scratching and the door opened. Dad blinked at me and I blinked back.

"What's wrong?" he asked. I blinked and some more rolled down.

"Nothing," I said honestly. "I don't know what's going on!"

Dad looked worried, then smiled. "You're sure?"

I nodded. "They just won't stop!" I complained. "I don't know!"

He looked at me fondly and patted my head with a paw. "Well, if your hands and arms are too wet to wipe any more of them away, then the wind will have to do the rest."

"Huh?" I blinked.

"I'm asking you if you'd like to run with me," he said solemnly, but smiling too.

I stared and then broke into a laugh and hugged him. "Yeah!"

For a young Fluff, it was pretty usual for them to run with their parents at ages younger than mine. But I'd always been too slow, and my parents had always had somewhere they needed to be faster than I could follow on my own. For my dad to ask me to run with him, even though we both knew I still couldn't keep up if he was running his fastest, sure made me feel great! I got up and my dad lead the way outside, past Reno and Yuffie who were now stuck in another play fight, past the fences and out into the tall grass, and then we went faster and I had to jog a little to keep up, and then faster, and I was running, running with arms spread wide and dad loping along beside me, leaping through the grass, and we both felt happy, the kind of happy you feel when you run with no destination in mind, you're just running to run and feel the wind. For a moment the tears rolled on worse than ever, but then they got swept off and my face felt cold and I grinned and we just ran and ran. Soon I didn't even care about the soreness anymore, it didn't matter. We were running and the sun was warm and the grass was long and green and I wasn't left behind in the dust. Dad started running faster, bounding and leaping high and far and I kept up still. I began to think "Wow, how is this happening? I'm slow, I'm slow...I can't run this fast!"

But I was. And when I tried to leap and bound like my dad...it actually worked. I felt...almost like a completely different person. But it was cool... I felt...like I was flying. Maybe I was, now that I think about it...!

**You finally accept it! Thank Jenova!**

Accept it? Huh? What do you mean?

**You know exactly what I mean, Fluff. You finally accepted that you were nothing without me!**

...and this was supposed to be a happy part.

* * *

When I got back from my run with dad, everyone was eating lunch, and after eating too (leftover spaghetti! YAY!) I felt better than I had since we left Round Island. Then Jay got Charky and Sylkis ready and his friend gave him his prized summoning materia to use in case we weren't able to evade the Zolom. We both climbed up on our chocobos and I waved bye to Jay's friend and my family, and then we started. Charky was anxious to go, so him and Jay ran circles around me and Sylkis while we started off. We followed nearly the same way me and dad and run through earlier, but then we just kept going and going. Soon Charky had settled down and Jay grinned at me.

"Now your turn. I wanna see some figure eights on the double, man!"

"Huhhh?" I sat back and stared at him. He laughed.

"Make Sylkis go like this." He drew a figure eight in the air with his finger. "And make one of the loops go around me and Charky each time, got it?"

"Oh. Okay...I'll try!" I grinned and started trying to direct. It was a little harder than I thought it would be, but after about twenty times I thought I might be getting the hang of it...

**You're not a very fast learner, are you?**

Maybe...it depends on what I'm learning I guess. Staying on was easy...making sure I was in charge of where Sylkis was going was a little harder. He wanted to stay behind Charky, but I had to force him forward and then around, then back and around, then forward and around...it was a little frustrating but with Jay's help I got it. Then he started me on backing up. That was even worse.

"Naw man, you gotta tell him to go AND pull back at the same time, got it?"

"But isn't that confusing?" I asked, puzzled beyond measure.

"Just do it, man, you'll see what I mean," he said, pulling Charky back from running into the two of us.

"Okay..." I said uncertainly. I squeezed with my legs and pulled back on the reins at the same time, and he started forward a tiny step, then moved a tiny step backward-

"Keep doing it!" Jay yelled.

I pulled and squeezed and Sylkis obediently backed up...quickly too. It sure felt funny, when I was so used to going forward. The chocobo's weight shifted differently when it was going backward.

"Great, ya did it!" he cheered and held up a hand for me to high-five. I cautiously rode up close so I could slap it. Charky warked and Sylkis backed off, so I missed.

"Hahaha, that dang pecking order," Jay giggled. "Charky's the bossy one, so I guess he told Sylkis not to get too close."

"Pecking what?" I blinked.

"The order in the group...like whoever's highest can tell the ones who're lower than him what to do, and they do it, 'cause he's at the top, y'know?"

I nodded slowly. "I think Fluffs do that too!"

"Really?" Jay chucked. "Well sure. I guess I can believe that. Seem like pack animals, anyhow."

We sat there a second, and then Jay clicked to Charky and said, "Well, we'll give 'em a rest until we get to the swamp...they'll need their strength then. So for now we just walk it."

So we walked along in silence for about three seconds until Jay finally giggled and said, "Hey, you wanna hear the story about how I almost died because of a toothpick from Junon?"

"Uhhhh..."

"It's a great story! It all started when this little kid told me that ya know, ya shouldn't chew on toothpicks from Junon 'cause they're made out of like really badly recycled wood, 'cause there isn't any wood around Junon, and I didn't believe him, so I got one from this scary coffee shop...I think it was called Beautiful Bro's Cafe or something, and I started chewing on it. I chewed on it and chewed on it and the kid was lookin' at me like I was crazy and then he said he was going home because he didn't think his mama would want 'im to see somebody die 'cause of a toothpick, and I just grinned and started to tell him he was being silly but then I accidentally swallowed a sliver of the toothpick and it got stuck in my throat and MAN I was in trouble. Then my friend gave me a drink of water and it just got stuck WORSE and-"

"Urm...how come you and him are such good friends?" I interrupted, blinking hard at his weird story.

"-I thought I was gonna die, seriously...huh?" he blinked.

"Um...I was just asking how you and him got to be friends."

"Oh, that's easy. We're half brothers!" Jay laughed as if it was the most obvious thing on the Planet. It really wasn't.

"Oh. You don't look like brothers," I said blankly.

"Yeah I know! We both come from same mom but different dads. Different as hot and cold, our mom always said, and kinda seems like he n' me are that way too sometimes," he grinned.

"Yeah you do!" I agreed. "So where do you guys come from?"

"Fort Condor," Jay said proudly. "Yeah, one heck of a place. Not many of our people come out to the other villages and towns on this continent, y'know?"

"Fort Condor..." I blinked, then laughed. "I really need a map. Where's Fort Condor?"

"Just the other side of Mithril Mines, it is! I'd take ya there, but it's gonna be hard enough just getting through the swamp and the caves. Maybe some other time." He looked kind of disappointed.

I nodded. "Okay! So...why do you guys want a materia from Round Island so much?" I hoped I wasn't prying too much. Jay luckily didn't seem to mind.

"Eh, it's not that we want the materia, man, though he really would like to at least look at it once we have it...nah, it's not that. Captain's gonna pay us quite a bit if we get it for 'im so he can pass it on to whoever it is he's working for. It should be enough to help out our situation at the Fort."

"Oh..." I said, wondering what the "situation" was.

"Hehe...they're tryin' to tell us we gotta pay 'em for keepin' the condors there...like it was theirs or somethin! Them condors belong to nobody! So if we get this money then we can keep 'em around. Ma always said they're good luck."

"Oh," I said again, sort of getting it but not really. "So...you and him seem to like birds alot. How come he wouldn't come with us?"

"Mmm he's busy, man," Jay said, seeming reluctant to answer for the first time today.

"But he knows like everything about chocobos! How come he never rides them?" I persisted.

"Well y'know...that's one thing he'd hafta tell ya himself, I don't got the place to say," Jay sighed.

I looked at Jay, confused, but then nodded. "Okay..."

"Anyway man, there it is!" He leaned forward and pointed over Charky's head and I looked up. There it was, alright. A big long expanse of grey...the green just kind of quickly faded into this weird murky water and mud. It was scary looking! The chocobos didn't seem to like it either, but Jay nudged Charky on, and then we both paused on the edge.

"Kay man...ya gotta keep close to me, just pretend like Sylkis n' Charky are tied n' can't get too far away from each other, understand? That Zolom- hey, there it is!"

I followed his pointing and saw a dark, loooooooong shadow slithering under the water a long way to the left. I shivered. "What is it!"

"A snake. Big snake. REALLY big snake!" Jay grinned nervously.

I swallowed hard and looked at him like "do we really have to go in there?" and he laughed.

"Alright, watch...it's goin' over there now. Let's book it!" He kicked Charky and the Black plunged splashing through the murky grey muck and I urged Sylkis on after him, keeping close up on the Black's tail and glancing around nervously. I nearly fell off when I saw the dark slithery shadow moving toward us like a wave.

"Jay! THERE IT IS!" I yelled. His head swung around and he went "HYA! GO CHARKY GO!" and the Black warked louder than ever and started running like nothing else. I couldn't really see through all the splashing, but then Sylkis stumbled and I saw the streak under the water coming at us. I squeezed my legs and pulled back and Sylkis practically ran backward, then I pulled him around to the left and we started running around the snake. Jay yelled at me but I couldn't tell what he was saying. I just knew I was scared and I really didn't want that snake to get me. So me and Sylkis ran...we ran until I finally made out what Jay was saying and turned.

"You're going the wrong way! Follow me!"

Me and the chocobo whirled around and ran toward Charky and Jay like they were gonna save us or something, and then all four of us pretty much galloped blind toward the cave on the other side of the swamp. I looked back once. The snake was rushing along behind us almost like he was a rope just trailing behind. I made sure to keep Sylkis going. We finally stumbled out onto dry land on the other side and stood there panting, me and Jay 'cause of fear, and the chocobos because of that and how fast they'd been running. Jay finally laughed.

"Man, that was some good work Seph. He'll be proud when I tell 'im you directed so good! Now just gotta remember that when racing time comes."

We were both dripping wet 'cause of the splashing that had been going on, so we both stared at each other and then I grinned and wiped a bit of water off the end of my nose.

"Thanks!"

"Heheh just you wait, we'll make you a real chocoboy," Jay looked pleased. "Now, into the mines!"

I stared at the dark hole of the cave and blinked. "In there?"

"Yeeep. Ya guessed it! And then on the other side we'll have a little break, then head back."

I sweatdropped. "Oh yeah...you mean...we'll have to go in there again?" I pointed despairingly at the swamp. Jay nodded and giggled.

"What'd you think we'd do, fly back?"

I blushed and sighed. "Well...I'll worry about that when we do it I guess." I didn't really wanna think about going in that swamp again right now.

"That's the spirit, Seph. Now let's get in those mines!"

The mines were pretty cool, I guess. We had to dismount and lead the chocobos in, and we got in a lot of fights, but it all worked out pretty good, and then we got out on the other side and plopped down on the grass and sighed in relief and took naps, throwing a couple greens to the chocobos before we let them walk around a little. It was nice...the sun was warm and the grass was soft and I don't know how long I slept but I felt really great when I woke up. Jay broke out some food and we munched a little bit before stretching and going out to grab the chocobos and lead them back into the mines. We didn't run into as many monsters this time, and when we got out on the other side, we watched, and the Zolom was all the way over on the far side of the swamp. We sprinted across and were already halfway to the other side before the snake even noticed us, and by the time it reached the middle where we'd run through, we were out into the dry tall grass and headed for the farm, with only a few cuts and stuff to show for our ride. We got home just as it was getting really dark, each took a potion, and climbed into bed...well, in my case...not really climbed. Just snuggled up between Yuffie and Cait Sith.


	8. Yay birthday yay!

The next few months were tiring but fun. Often I'd feel like I wasn't learning fast enough, but at those times I tried to laugh instead of do anything else I might've done...yeah. The baby chocobo grew a little, summer passed and fall and then winter started creeping in. By now I felt like I'd always been riding chocobos, always been sleeping in the barn, running around the farm, avoiding the grumpy doctor, running little errands for Jay's friend and the Captain and random members of the team. Being questioned by Reno every night about that last day on Goblin Island and pretending to be asleep so I wouldn't have to answer. I don't know why I didn't want to answer. I guess maybe I felt a little silly...maybe I wasn't sure it was her. Either way, I couldn't bring myself to tell him about it. So day after day came and went and I just kept learning everything Jay and his friend had to teach me about racing. That's what I thought about and did almost all of every hour of every day, when I wasn't doing other necessary things like eating or sleeping.

Finally, one day came when I noticed my family more than usual. They came out and asked the farmer if they could have a little bit of a celebration for me and the other Fluff's 11th birthday. By now everyone had at least partially accepted the fact that Fluffs were at least slightly intelligent, speaking creatures, but I still blushed and hid my embarrassed look behind a drink of juice. Jay immediately leapt on top of his chair in a funny pose and yelled.

"Heck yeah! If it's our little silvery's birthday, we gotta throw a party, I mean come on!"

"And ours too!" Reno, Cait Sith, and Yuffie each said at about the same time in about the same way.

"Right, right!" Jay grinned. "Three times the reason to party!"

The farmer looked perplexed. "It'll just be a small party right?"

Jay giggled. "Yeah man, small! Like, I'll only be inviting my friend and the good old Cap'n, and he'll only be inviting the crew, so yeah, small!"

The farmer fell down onto (lucky guy) a chair. His wife looked equally dismayed.

My mom laughed nervously. "Oh no, really, we just wanted to have a small family celebration...you all don't need to get involved. I was just asking permission."

"Of course you have our permission...I would prefer if it was small though," the farmer's wife said hesitantly.

"Thank you," my mom said politely, and quickly herded us all outside. Jay followed us snickering, and once the door was closed he laughed even louder.

"Heheheh...if we gotta have it in the barn, then sure, but no way is this gonna be a small party!"

Mom and Dad sweatdropped.

* * *

Jay was as good or bad as his word. He got nearly everyone involved in organizing a humongous party...or at least, he said it was gonna be the biggest birthday party this place had seen in years. He sent riders out to Midgar to buy presents and decorations, and started people on cleaning up the place. That got the farmer's wife on our side quite a bit more...those guys shined up the old farm better than it had been in a long time, according to the farmer himself. They repainted the fence, cut the lawn (except for in the grazing areas, of course), shined up the chocobo's bridles, cleaned out the stalls and sprayed yummy smelling stuff everywhere. Then they started decorating, stringing up stuff...it was pretty cool.

Jay and his friend turned out to actually be decent cooks and helped out in the kitchen with the farmer and his wife for most of the day before the actual party. Reno, Cait Sith, and Yuffie were all unbelievably excited, and even Reno got a little hyper (with Yuffie and Cait Sith at their top level in energy, you either feel horribly wiped out, or give in and get really really happy)! Somehow everyone still managed to squeeze in my practice sessions, which had now moved from being on Sylkis to the blue chocobo, whose name was...uhm...let me think for a second...the Blue. Well that was what Jay called her most of the time when he was supposed to be serious, but when he got into a joking mood, her name was "Shiva the Icy Chocobo Maiden!". Yep. So Shiva or Blue.

Shiva the Icy Chocobo Maiden was a little younger than Sylkis and a whole lot more energetic. It took me a while to get used to her restless ways, and how she'd take off running at the slightest hint from me that I wanted to go. But it turned out okay in the end- with Jay's friend/brother's help, I got the hang of it after a while, and Shiva and me got to be good friends, just like Sylkis before her. I learned that Charky was their son, and I guess he got most of his temperament from his mom's side, since Sylkis and him are nothing alike. Kind of weird that Charky's above Sylkis in the pecking order...Fluffs don't normally EVER try to make themselves higher than their parents. But Charky is pretty high over the limit of self-importance. I wonder how he and Jay get along so well...Jay's so silly.

Anyway, the night before the party I could hardly sleep. My parents were really flustered and confused by how much of a big deal was being made, but they just went along with it, since there was definitely no way of stopping it from happening by now. There hadn't really been a chance in the beginning either- Jay doesn't get his mind changed very easily when he really decides on something. Yuffie trembled half the night, fighting the urge to scream in glee and run around bouncing off the walls. I could feel it. I don't know how some people stand vibrating beds...it just kept me awake.

"Hey Sephi?" Cait Sith mumbled, clutching his moogle and staring at the ceiling. I rolled over.

"Hmm?"

"It's kind of hard to believe we got thrown off Round Island just a little more than a year ago...isn't it?" he asked quietly.

I thought about that, and realized he was right. "Yeah...it's weird!"

"You think we'll ever see Tilo again? And old Teff?" he murmured sadly. He and Tilo had seemed to hit it off pretty good from the beginning...they had the same kind of temperament and thought about alot of the same things.

"Mm..." I began, squirming a little as I thought of Woffia. Reno thumped me with his tail and I yelped.

"I didn't know you were awake!" I cried.

"You never do," he chucked, then sighed. "Y'know...you still haven't told me about what happened while we were leaving!"

I stiffened and realized it was too late to try and pretend to be asleep again. Cait Sith poked me.

"Huh? Something happened while we were leaving? Leaving where?"

"Goblin Island," Reno grumbled. "And he hasn't told me yet."

Cait Sith rolled onto his stomach and looked at me. "Seph, it's not like you to keep secrets! Why aren't you telling?"

I whined and sat up. "Fine." I was tired of keeping it to myself. "I thought I saw Woffia."

Reno stared at me and I braced myself for a tackle or a yelling or something. Cait Sith gasped.

I just hung my head and waited for Reno to shove me or something. But all that happened was a long silence and then Reno whimpering.

"Was she okay?"

I looked up. Reno looked desperate to know. Cait Sith was watching me too, but all I could do was shrug.

"She looked scared...and well...I don't really know if it was her. Her fur was more red...but I think it was her. She was skinnier though...she looked hungry and..."

Reno looked dismayed. "Did she say anything?"

I shook my head. "We just stared at each other, and then I looked away when you grabbed me, but when I looked back she was gone. She came to get my spinach."

"It was definitely her, then!" Reno cried. I sighed. Cait Sith looked shocked, but then he smiled softly.

"But that means...that at least she got to land. That's good, isn't it?"

Reno just whimpered, then shook his head. "Yeah, but what about the monsters there? What about food? What if she's..."

Cait Sith hugged his moogle. "She's smart...and strong. She's beat all three of us at play fights more than once, remember? She'll be okay..."

Reno didn't look so sure. I sighed and laid back down, squishing myself up against mom for warmth. It wasn't near as cold down here as it would be on Round Island...but still cold. Suddenly that made me think of how cold it must be on Goblin Island now...I shivered.

Cait Sith patted Reno and Reno curled up, obviously unsettled by the news and the thoughts it brought to mind. I swallowed.

"Sorry I didn't tell you..." I whispered, feeling bad now that I had. Cait Sith laid back down too, and we all just sat there thinking about Woffia and the others and wondering where they were. I was sore from falling off Shiva earlier...and had already been feeling kind of tired out and stuff. But I knew now I couldn't even really give up on getting Round Island back from the Fluffs. I wanted it back too much...not just for me. Actually, not hardly at all for me. Sure I missed it...but I was pretty happy here too. I wanted it back so it could be a safe place for Fluffs to live again, and so that the Floofers would get something back for how they'd driven us off. I hugged myself and closed my eyes tight.

* * *

The party the next day...it's just a huge blur of awesomeness in my head. I think I got woke up by Jay again...but he was wearing his brightest eye-hurtingly colorful clothes and a funny hat he'd dug out of the farmer's attic as well. It was very...feathery. And I remember blinking hard at the huge colored-in-crayons banner spread out over the front of the barn, big enough for someone in a flying airship to see.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEPHIROTHRENOYUFFIEANDCAITSITH! 11!"

And random people's names from the crew were scribbled all over the bottom. Jay made sure to write his in huge block letters in bright pink with little doodles of him, his friend, and me and my family underneath...oh and the grumpy doctor scowling very impressively in crayon. My eyes got big and I ran over and tackled Jay.

"TEACH ME TEACH ME!" I said hyperly, already in a good mood from having a good sleep the night before, despite worry over Woffia. He laughed in shock.

"Whoa, whoa. Teach what? Wha!"

I rubbed my head against him. "To do that!" I let go and pointed at the scribbles on the sign.

Jay giggled. "Sure man, whatever, just let go o' me before someone thinks we're more crazy than we already are!"

I let go, trying to chuck but failing miserably and ended up rolling like Jay did when he first heard talk of Floofers. He still thought their name was utterly hilarious for how evil they "supposedly" (as he put it) were, but I got the feeling he was starting to believe me, if he didn't already.

So as the day went on, and while people randomly threw candy at me and my siblings and parents every few minutes, Jay showed me the basics of stick figures and the art of scribbling. It was great fun! I still felt like his were better by the time he was done with lessons and the farmer's kid wanted his crayons back, but it was still fun.

Lunch was all eaten outside so the farmer's wife could admire her clean kitchen a little while longer. She served us hot choco though, since it was pretty chilly, and that made everyone happy.

Then I had about five runs around the track on Shiva against Charky, and then helped Jay feed the mom and baby chocobo. The baby was getting close to when we could let him go, now, and was a feisty little thing. Nobody had any doubt he'd survive just fine when we finally did let him loose.

Finally, it was time for the party. We all crowded into the back part of the barn and spilled out into the outside. Now the hot choco was really flowing! We all were seated in the middle with everyone crowding around in a circle, and Jay broke through with a big yellow cake with purple icing letters on it with the same message as the banner outside. Yuffie squealed excitedly and we all crowded around when he set it on a stool in the middle of the floor. Then he waved his arms at everyone, went "A one, two, three-!" and everyone burst out into a floor-shaking, but very cool chorus of "Happy Birthday To You!"

I probably grinned bigger than I ever had. Even Jay's friend had a bigger smile than usual. The doctor still looked grumpy but whatever, I didn't care, and not many others did either.

"Now ya all gotta make a wish and blow out the candles at the SAME TIME," Jay commanded.

We all tilted our heads and thought, and then Cait Sith bounced a little and said "Ready?"

"Ready!" We all said.

"One...two...THREE!"

All four of us blew together and those candles went out quick. I forget what I wished for. It might have been that Woffia would be okay. It might have been that the next baby chocobo would be a Gold. It might have been that I would become a good racer. But I just remember sitting back and smiling while people piled presents onto my lap, and in front of the others.

The best present all night long was a pair of silly fuzzy doggy ears that Jay had gotten from some weird costume shop in Midgar on his last trip there. The others were fun but I don't remember all of them. I just remember feeling...really really happy!

* * *

The next few months flew by, day in and day out of riding Shiva against Charky out on the track, with a few long-distance rides in between. Jay's friend never came with us on those rides. I still hadn't seen him so much as sit on a chocobo. Finally the day came when I changed which chocobo I was riding on one last time. Everybody gathered around the fenced place at the farm and cheered while we let the little yellow one go. He warked and galloped off like something was chasing him or something, and soon we couldn't see him anymore. Jay patted the Wonderful Chocobo, who by now I'd learned was called Winner. I guess they thought it'd be good luck, I don't know. Anyway, as soon as everybody else started going back to their duties around the farm (the farmer's wife had managed to keep her kitchen spotless even after the birthday by getting random team members to help), Jay's friend nodded at me and pointed at Winner.

"Time to start the real training."

Boy, I hadn't known the meaning of training before. I had to go to bed and wake up at certain times, eat my meals in a rush, all so I could get in as much time as possible on Winner. Charky was getting whipped up into shape too. Winner wasn't quite as...I dunno...competative's not the word, because she really was. She'd fight to get to the front, which was a real problem because then she'd use up all her energy and fall behind worse than ever. I really had to practice pulling her back alot, even more than with Shiva. I guess what I meant was she wasn't as independent. Sure she fought a little when I tried to pull back but when it came to directing, she was the easiest I'd ever ridden so far. And if I wanted her to run as fast as she could, she ran as FAST as she COULD. She wouldn't hold back at all. All in all we got along pretty well, but my hands got beat up from pulling back so much.

It was about two months after we'd let the baby chocobo go. Things were going good, for everyone actually. It seemed like Winner got faster everyday, and I'd gotten lots of clothes earlier on my birthday, so I didn't have to borrow Jay's anymore, and even the doctor had lightened up a little bit because everyone was pretty much healthy and I wasn't raiding his potions stash anymore. It had been months since Jay's friend or me or anyone else had so much as seen a monster, we had all stayed so close to the farm. So everybody was pretty cheerful. Except Jay's friend.

I didn't get why he was suddenly so down all the time. He got down to business and sometimes was even really easy to get mad during practice. I tried not to talk too much and just focus on not making any mistakes he could point out. I was getting really good at pulling Winner back, my arms were alot stronger and she was starting to work better and not be so anxious to get ahead right at the start and just keep going. We'd worked it out so that she could pull ahead and then stay within the top three until the very end- that was our main plan for the races. Everything was going good. I couldn't see what had him so worried. Finally, Jay announced one night (climbing on top of a chair and in a silly pose as usual), that we'd be leaving in a week for our long trip to the Gold Saucer. Nobody seemed real surprised, but afterward I went up and talked to him.

"How come we're leaving in a week? I thought the races we're entering don't start until September..."

"They don't!" Jay grinned. "That's why we're leaving now. It'll give us time to train on the way, and visit some places and have a good time at the same time!"

"Oh!" I nodded. "Okay. So you think you can show me where you live this time?"

Jay nodded. "Probably, if it's alright with him, y'know. We're most likely gonna have to stop there anyway for supplies."

I glanced at Jay's friend...and half brother. He was sitting in a corner looking about the same kind of upset as he had when we'd found out the baby chocobo wasn't Gold. He looked tired too. Jay grabbed one of my shoulders and shook me once in a friendly kinda way.

"C'mon, man, gotta kick those butterflies outta your stomach, alright? They got no place being there anyway."

"Huh...? Butterflies?" I blinked, but Jay just chucked and walked away, waving over his shoulder while he headed to pour himself a glass of water. I tried not to worry about it too much when people said things I didn't understand...it happened alot, too much for me to spend alot of time trying to figure it all out. I didn't have much time for anything now anyway. Butterflies in my stomach? That was weird.

The next week was busier than anything I'd ever seen before. Not only did I have to practice almost all day, when I wasn't practicing I had to pack the few things I had, and help Jay's friend catch wild chocobos. Taming them sure was...interesting. We gave them alot of Pahsana greens, but even then, I got the scary chance to ride one of them around. After getting spoiled from Winner's easy directing-ness, it was really hard to get those wild ones to go where I wanted them to go. I fell off more than once. Finally they were all ready to be used as pack chocobos, to carry all the stuff we were bringing. Jay laughed while he was stuffing his clothes into a bag the day before leaving.

"Man, this would be a whole lot easier if we had an airship. Those things sure beat traveling on foot...and with all the stuff and people we're bringing, we won't be ridin' the chocobos for much of the way, I can tell ya that. It'd take an army of chocobos for everyone who's coming to be able to ride."

"Oh..." Somehow I'd thought I would be riding most of the way. This explained even more why we were leaving months before the actual races started. Jay ruffled my hair.

"Don't worry, you'll still be up on one more than ya might think. You're really turning into a real chocoboy, aren't ya? Getting fond of them birds, eh?"

I blushed and tried to smooth my hair down a little. "Yeah I guess..." I hadn't really thought about it. It was like second nature to ride them now. I'd tried, and when I was on Winner, I always won in races against Yuffie, who was the fastest of us all. It was nice to be able to go fast. I hadn't been able to keep up with any of my family, not since that day I'd run with dad and almost flew. Anyway, riding them kept my mind off other things.

"Hehe...well, I hope ya stick with it." Jay looked at me like I was his little brother or something. I blinked.

"Well I have to, don't I?"

He laughed, but he looked kind of sad. That was something, for Jay. "I mean after we get the Gold."

"Oh." There it was again. Something I hadn't really thought about. I was too caught up in learning how to race and what I was doing now, I'd almost forgotten that there'd still be things to do and stuff after I took back Round Island. I hadn't thought about what I'd do after that. Go look for Woffia and the others who we cared about but might never see again? Keep racing? I realized the Gold chocobo wouldn't be mine. I'd have to find another way to search for my friends. But how? Maybe I would stick around...get my own Gold chocobo after a while. It would take years. I fell over in dismay. Years! Unless they just happened to be in a really really giving kinda mood after I got back from getting Round Island back and said "Here, the next Gold chocobo Charky and Winner have is yours!"

Not really gonna happen, huh?

Jay blinked at me where I'd fallen over. "Huh? What's the matter? You get a head rush? You weren't even sitting down."

I sighed really slowly. "I dunno what I'm gonna do when this is all over. I wanna look for the other Fluffs but I can't really do that by myself...but I can't ask you guys for help, either!"

"What makes ya say that?" Jay blinked. "He told me ya wanted to take your island back, right? That's all there is to it, right?"

I shook my head, feeling confused. "But all the Fluffs got kicked off! There's not much point in taking it back unless I can find them and bring them back, is there?"

"Oh...yeah, you're right. Well, we'll figure something out."

"I hope so," I whimpered. He pulled me up, slapped my back, and walked away, leaving me wincing.

"Don't ya get all worried now. We got a trip to make and races to win, got that? Ya don't gotta worry about things like that right now."

"Kay," I said quietly, but I still wondered.


	9. On The Road Again

Next morning everyone was up earlier than usual, even Jay, and his usual was pretty early. Reno, who liked sleeping late nowadays, was kind of grumpy that morning and mostly grumbled under his breath and wandered around like a zombie. Everyone stayed far away from the doctor, because the ones that didn't got yelled at so loud everyone else could hear it all the way on the other side of the farm. Jay's friend went about his business getting the wild chocobos from the grasslands outside the farm all covered in packs of everyone's stuff and hitched up so they wouldn't run around too much, and I only got a few looks at him, but he always looked...I dunno. He didn't seem very happy. Not mad like the doctor or grumpy like alot of the other people. Just really...quiet. And when he looked at people he didn't see really see them.

Jay seemed extra cheerful to make up for his brother's...sullenness? He was running around double-checking everything and shouting jokes and messages at people and waving ecst..atically...when he saw someone who'd just woken up. They would grumble and wave back and then smile after another couple of steps. Sadly, it didn't work on the doctor, Jay got yelled at worse than anyone, but once he was out of the doctor's hearing range he fell over in a fit of giggles at how purple the doc's face had gotten. Everybody chucked and stepped over him, hauling more stuff over to load onto the chocobos.

Finally everything was ready. I looked up at the sky- it was in that shadowy blue time right before the sun comes up, and it was a little tiny bit chilly...just enough to make you feel awake. Sylkis was hitched up to the front of the pack-chocobo herd, with a few packs on him too. Jay's friend lead Sylkis by the head. Jay hopped on Charky and I got up on Winner with Shiva's reins in one hand and Winner's in the other. Shiva had to carry some too, but she wasn't very happy about it. She kept floofing her feathers angrily. The Captain stood up at the head of the group, whistled loudly to get our attention, and raised an arm, waving it once.

"Let's head out, boys!"

"WOOO!" Jay cheered, and he and Charky took off. His friend had a hard time keeping Sylkis from running off after him too fast. The doctor almost got trampled, and ended up throwing an empty potion bottle in Jay and Charky's general direction with a screech. Jay nearly fell off laughing again. At first it was pretty chaotic while we all moved out, but then Jay settled down and everyone just marched along through the grass humming or talking or thinking. The sun rose and it got warm. We were pretty cheerful till we got to the edge of the swamp. Then everyone groaned and got quiet. Captain got everyone's attention this time just by standing there and clearing his throat.

"Jay will take Sylkis and the pack chocobos across first, then unload them and bring them back for you all to mount. Jay's friend will walk out and distract the Zolom while everyone gets across. Move quickly- he can only give us so much time."

I blinked at Jay's friend. He looked grim, but just watched while Jay shot out across the swamp with the pack chocobos trailing behind. The Zolom picked them up scarily quick. Jay's friend, who had been sticking his materia into his weapon and bangles, seemed to jerk out of his trance and splashed out into the murky water, right into the path of the Zolom. The snake reared up out of the water and I shivered and nearly fell over. It was HUGE. It was one thing seeing it under the water, as like...a little shadow. It was another thing to see it snapping at Jay's friend, who dodged and solemnly moved in the summoning dance. I didn't get to see the monster he summoned though, because the Captain was yelling at us to get out there and across the swamp as fast as we could. Everybody splashed out there and it was really confusing, but we made it.

Once we were all on the other side, I turned around and saw Jay's friend fall into the water for a second, and the snake disappeared underneath too. Then Jay's friend stood up and ran, but the Zolom was too fast and he had to fight it again. He looked like he had gotten hurt too. Jay wasn't grinning anymore. He was looking frantically through a big bag he'd kept on Charky, and finally he picked out one item, and plunged forward into the water with Charky, running toward his friend, who yelled "NO! GO BACK!" but Jay just rode right out and threw the item he had. Smoke appeared out of nowhere, and nobody could see what was going on out there. We could hear yelling and warking and the hissing screechy and snappy noises the Zolom made, and then Jay rode out of the smoke cloud with his friend being half-dragged behind him.

When they got to the shore, the doctor sighed and cast cure quickly on Jay's friend, who then stood up and walked straight into the mines without saying anything to anyone. Now he looked kind of angry. I walked Winner over to Jay and asked quietly.

"What was that?"

"Huh? Oh, he's just mad," he said, blinking. I shook my head.

"No, the thing you threw that made all that smoke!"

"Oh, that!" Jay laughed. "A little thing I kind of swiped from battle square last time I was at the Gold Saucer. But shh...I wasn't supposed to."

"Oh..."

Everybody wandered over and into Mithril Cave, wet and muddy and shook up. Jay's friend was so far ahead of us, none of us saw him until we got to the other side. Jay kicked Charky forward and caught up to talk to him. Jay's friend just kept shaking his head, but when Jay came back he nodded at me.

"Yeah, we'll stop by Fort Condor and stay the night. He doesn't wanna, but whatever, we're supposed to take it easy on this trip, right? Anyway, it's too far to the next town to make in one day unless we ran the chocobos, but we aren't gonna do that."

"Yeah...how come he doesn't wanna go?"

Jay got distracted by something someone said so quickly I wondered if he did it on purpose. I blinked and got tackled by Reno and we both decided to race to an...invisible finish line...and of course I won...I mean lost...horribly.

Yep, the trip was off to a great start.

**

* * *

**

Fort Condor was really really cool...! We were greeted by pretty much everyone while we walked in. It was in the middle of kind of a dusty grass-less piece of ground, and then we climbed up between these big black rocks, and then we were inside the tower fort thing and Jay yelled "WE'RE HOOOOOOME!" and ran up to a little kid who had jumped out of his seat, grabbed him, and started giving him a noogie thing. The kid squirmed and laughed.

"Hey Jayyy stop iit!"

Jay chucked and let the kid off easy. "Your head getting soft or something, man?"

"Never!" the kid replied fiercely. I almost thought he'd punch Jay for a second or something, but then they both laughed. Jay's friend blew out a breath and looked up when an older guy who looked actually pretty strong walked over.

"What? No hello for me?" He asked.

Jay dropped the kid, who he'd been swinging around, and ran over to the old guy. The kid rubbed his head and laughed.

"Hey gramps! Long time no see!" Jay grinned and squished the guy. The guy went "Oh...haha!" squish-ed-ly, and when Jay let him go he closed one eye in a funny look.

"Gotta be careful there or you might just snap me in two..."

Jay chucked. "Never, gramps, you're too tough of an old stump, right?"

The old guy nodded and turned to Jay's friend. I think he said a name then...but I don't remember it now. He said it so softly I couldn't be sure anyway. But Jay's friend looked up with respect in his eyes. The old man put a hand on his shoulder.

"The family knows what you've been doing...at least part. Your efforts will be rewarded."

Jay's friend sighed as if he didn't really believe what the old guy was saying, or like he was frustrated or something. The old guy patted him.

"In any case, welcome home, whether you feel welcome or not."

The old guy turned back to Jay and gave him a thumbs up. Jay fell back on his bum with a giggle and returned it. Then the "gramps" waved at all of us to follow him, and he gave us a tour of the huge fort...it was so cool! He sure was a funny old man...Jay seemed to get along better with him than with his own half-brother. We got introduced to lots of people and then sat down for a big meal between lunch and dinner time because we'd sort of missed lunch on the way there. All the time we were there I don't remember Jay's friend saying a single word to anyone. He looked like REALLY either depressed or tired or angry or something...one of those three all the time, he seemed to trade off depending on how much people bugged him. Me and my family still ended up sleeping on the floor- there still weren't enough beds. But it was okay. They fed us really good while we were there, and on the second day they went up and showed us the young condor who guarded the tower.

"Wowwww..." I said, watching it walk around on its huge feet with the dragon type claws and scratch at a feather with...a beak that was...very scary looking. But still, it was a pretty bird.

Gramps smiled. "Hmhmhm...this one was only just hatching when the true heroes of the Meteor crisis came through here."

"Huh? True heroes?" I blinked. I'd only heard of one group of heroes. Gramps shook his head.

"Some people still somehow give Shinra credit for everything. Sad, isn't it? Even though I personally don't mind giving them blame for some things..." he chucked.

Later that morning we said goodbye to the people at Fort Condor and headed north west- Jay's friend had taught me how to use a compass a few months ago, or at least tried to. But anyway, the captain said we were going north west to Junon. We had to walk alot faster and take less stops than on the first day. We got back into grassy places and then walked up along the edge of some water...then turned almost completely west around the end of the afternoon. Everybody was really tired. We didn't even stop to eat...we ate while we were walking, and it was only a little bit of a snack. I ate some lettuce. Yum! It got dark pretty fast...people pulled out flash lights and we managed to keep going the right direction, because about two hours after dark we all looked up and there was Junon...it basically looked like...a giant cannon.

"We're staying here?" I blinked. I'd never really seen a cannon before so I didn't even know what THAT was...it was so huge too. Jay nodded.

"Yep. Nice little fishing town! A little run down...but it's a place to stay. And we'll get lotsa rest tomorrow."

"Huh? We will?" I asked hopefully.

"Uh-huh! The ship to Costa Del Sol'll do our walking for us, y'know? We're goin' across the ocean."

"Ohhhh..." I said, while we walked into the grayish fishy-smelling town. Everything looked kind of dirty and stuff, the air smelled funny, and past the houses there was a huge wall of metal with some soldiers standing in front of it. Jay looked at it longingly and nudged his friend.

"Hey, got enough money? What if we could afford to actually stay up top?"

"We can't," he said...the first words he'd spoken since we'd gotten to Fort Condor. "And even we could, I'm not spoiling you."

Jay laughed. "Aw man, that hurts!"

"Hmph..." He almost looked like he was gonna smirk, but he just sighed and walked over to an old-looking (everything really WAS run down!) house...hut...thing. He knocked on the door and a youngish guy with a patched jacket and a beard opened it and blinked.

"Oh, passing through again? Well, if you gotta stay, you gotta stay...the house is yours for tonight, just make sure it's here when I get back from my mom's, got it?"

Jay grinned and waved. "Thanks man!"

"Yeah yeah whatever, just get inside before the soldiers get wondering what such a huge group of regular people are doing around here. Them guys are dang paranoid..." the guy grumbled and walked off. The Captain nodded a thanks to the man and then started shoving everybody inside the little space. It was REALLY cramped that night. And mom kept wondering out loud why the floor felt kind of greasy. Yuffie had a hyper fur-licking contest with Cait Sith the next morning to get the weird smell out. Everybody was groaning 'cause we were all so hungry. We ate the last of the food we'd loaded up that day, but Jay said it was okay 'cause we were going on the boat and they'd serve us some meals on the way to Costa Del Sol. Reno cheered when he heard that, and everyone eagerly poured out of the hut thing and went up to the soldiers at the gate. The Captain and a long and quiet talk (nobody could hear what they were saying) with the guards and they finally let us on to the elevator. I guess I actually yelled in surprise when the wall opened up...I'd never seen anything like that before either. And then the elevator made me feel all wobbly. But we got to the top and then to the boat...I don't remember much about the top part of Junon...everyone was in a really big hurry to get to the boat, that's all. Captain dished out the money for the passage, and everybody pitched in a little, even me. I'd luckily thought to bring along all the money I'd been saving from the fights with low-level monsters around the chocobo farm. We all got on...me and my family actually got a bedroom to ourselves- that was one big ship. It all happened pretty fast- we were out on the water then, and everybody got up on deck for lunch. Oh man that was a big lunch! And lots of things that I didn't know what they were. I avoided the meat stuff of course...luckily they had a pretty good group of veggie and bread and fruit stuffs. Oh and like...cheese and stuff. So everybody finally got to eat and then we all lazed around in our cabins sleeping it all off. Yuffie and Cait Sith and Mom were still worried about how the smell of Junon was sticking to them...I don't know if the other crew members could smell it though, even I couldn't really smell it that well. But they weren't satisfied, so they had another round of licking races before curling up for a nap.

Yuffie woke us up later that night with her seasickness, but it wasn't quite as bad as it had been on the way to the continent from Goblin Island, so we managed to still be pretty cheerful. Throughout the trip I spent alot of time below deck in the chocobo stables part of the ship. Charky was really restless, and Winner and Shiva too. The wild chocobos mostly slept, they were getting spoiled worse than ever. I went down to pet them. Charky wouldn't let me pet him though- he'd try to peck me if I tried. He barely nicked my hand once and I thought I was gonna die, it scared me! It hurt alot too...

So mostly I just petted Winner, Sylkis, and Shiva. They were happy for the attention, and I found out Sylkis had a taste for spinach too. It felt good but sad to share it with him.

The trip on the boat was really fun for most of the way (except for Yuffie). Jay's friend lightened up a little bit and when Jay suggested playing some game or doing something to pass the time he didn't say no all the time anymore. I stumbled my way through tons of board games and card games on that trip, and never really learned how to play any of them. Jay didn't mind though. He just laughed.

Finally we got to Costa Del Sol. It was really warm there, and everybody seemed pretty cheerful there too. It was very...yellow! And orange. And I blinked at all the people in funny swimming suits and the people who were surfing and playing tennis...and we passed by a big house and I poked Jay.

"Who lives there? That's a big house!"

Jay shrugged. "Word is somebody came through and bought it, and either they disappeared or just nobody ever sees 'em come outta that house, ever. Nice house though, and nobody really has the right to sell it yet...and I guess nobody's tried to break in yet. Funny, huh?"

"Yeah..." I blinked at the building. Little did I know how much time I'd spend there in the future! Because that's Rae and Elie's house...well technically it was bought with Elie/Cloud's money, but whatever. I guess the reason it was deserted at that time...was because everyone was in the future. I mean, they'd sporked around the time I was born to 15 years in their future, so that means about 5 years in my own future from where the story is right now, that I'm writing, y'know?

**Fool...they're dumb mortals, they wouldn't know what sporking is unless you explain it to them plainly!**

They wouldn't? Okay...sporking is...when you travel through time, using a time machine/spork. Yes, sporks are time machines. You stick them on your head and spin clockwise how many years in the future you want to travel, and backward how many years in the past you want to! Cool, huh? Okay, was that a good explanation?

**Good enough I suppose...**

Hooray! Okay, so back to what I was saying. That was and would be Rae and Elie's house, where all the bishie playing would take place. Here, I would get to deal with insane sugar highs, and horrible tragedies. Everything from truth or dare to that horrible valentine's day madness...vampirizing people, getting kids...that huge bunch of weirdness that happened because Elie was a Turk and Kadaj zapped the swim teacher and was wanted and had to run away and make himself a disguise by cutting his hair off and dying it green. Puppet shows...kidnapping missions to Rufus' office in the Shinra building...Cloud almost getting strangled...going to Junon and finding Scotch, then Scotch getting possessed by K, Cloud and Elie being reunited with their son...then the whole big long drama with Kadaj's depression...things are never boring for very long in that house. But for now it just looked like a regular building, and one I'd never seen the inside of before. So I walked past it.

**You dare think you know the bishie house better than I? Remember Fluff, I was there before you ever were! By about sixteen years!**

Okay, okay! I didn't say that I knew it better...I was just listing things...

**You're lucky I don't punish you for your insolence!**

Eep...!

...okay, so...we stayed one night in Costa Del Sol, and after that the trip was really lazy and slow. I spent most of the first day watching a tennis game and after that I had a big fan-ness for the Midgar Meteors.

**Thief! I was a fan of them first! You're stealing EVERYTHING!**

Well it's...! I mean...you were inside me, how could I NOT have that...change things somehow! Right? I mean...it was probably you who gave me the idea to like them anyway. Everyone else was cheering for the Costa Del Sol Comets...!

**Another piece of evidence that you are yet again nothing without me. **

Whatever you say, Sephiroth.

Afterward we went into the A&W for some root beer floats. We got served by a guy named Arnold, I remember that...because I was thinking "hey, maybe he's the A in A&W?" ...yeah I know, stupid thought. But I mean it makes sense now, since the lady who works there is Walda the waddlewoman. She rolls. Literally. She's really REALLY weird, but she makes good ice cream. I wonder what happened to Arnold...?

**

* * *

**

Well anyway, from there the trip involved alot of camping along the road, and we started having practices on Charky and Winner every day. We were going southwest...it was getting really hot, so we traveled during the day and did the practice runs in the morning and evening, before we headed out and after we made camp. Everybody was getting excited and stuff, but nervousness was coming too, and at the same time we were all still taking it easy. We even had time to collect some more money off monsters- let me tell you, the monsters on that continent are WEIRD. And some of them were alot harder than the ones I fought in the grasslands area, so the Doctor started running out of potions again and was always grumpy (no surprise there), but he was pretty much the only one who was. Yuffie and Reno and Cait Sith and Mom and Dad all seemed to be having a real good time. Just the other day mom was saying "Just think! If we hadn't been kicked off the island we never would have found out what the rest of the world was like, or seen such strange and wonderful things!" Everyone immediately agreed, though Reno still said "But it would be nice if we hadn't been FORCED off..."

I had to agree, I mean, it was cool that we'd been able to meet Jay and the Captain and them, and been so many places, but I was feeling worse than ever how really really far away from home we were. Jay had showed me a map of the world the other day...pointed at Goblin Island, and then at the Chocobo Farm, then at Fort Condor, then Junon, then Costa Del Sol. I couldn't believe we were halfway across the world from where we'd come from. It kind of hurt my head to think about it too much.

Finally, about two weeks after we'd left Costa Del Sol (yeah, we were moving that slow), we came down past some mountains and one day while the sun was setting I thought I saw something shiny on the horizon.

"What's that?" I pointed. Jay grinned.

"That, little Sephiroth, is the Gold Saucer!"

"Whoaaa really?" I said, getting a funny jolt when I realized what it was. He nodded.

"But now we head north like!" We were just coming around the bottom of the mountain range and I could see that there was a way up north on the other side. I blinked.

"How come? Gold Saucer is south! That doesn't make sense!" I sure was confused.

"You'll see when we get to Corel, man." He chucked and turned me by the shoulders toward north.

"But whyyyy?" I whimpered, puzzled beyond belief.

"Just keep walkin', man! Sooner we get there, sooner I can plop ya on a rollercoaster and see if ya scream or not!" he giggled. His friend frowned.

"We're not going to do alot of playing tonight, Jay. I'm going see if we can do a practice run on the race course when we get there."

"Heh, good luck! Don't think the owners of it'll let ya do that so easy!" Jay snickered. His friend ignored him and went back to go check on the pack chocobos. I blinked, worried and wondering why in the world we were moving AWAY from the Gold Saucer...when it was just right there! Why go north? Why were we going to Corel? And there's no way we could get to the Gold Saucer by tonight if we went that way...was there!

"Hey Sephi, whatsa matter?" Yuffie boinged over to me, a bunch of weedy flowers in a falling-apart crown on her head. I blinked at it.

"Uhhh...who gave you that?" I pointed curiously. She giggled.

"Huh? This?" she pulled it off and looked at it with surprise. "Awww it's falling apaaart! Saad!" She poked one of the weedy flowers that was wilting all over the place.

"Who gave you those?" I asked again, grinning. Yuffie blinked at me and then beamed.

"Jay did!"

"Whoa...JAY did?" I stared. She nodded happily.

"Uh-huh! Isn't it pretty? Well...it was even PRETTIER before!"

"Yeah...you're always bouncing everywhere Yuffie! Maybe if you didn't bounce and roll and run around so much it would've lasted longer...!" I laughed. I also thought maybe Jay wasn't the best at making flower crowns, but then, I'd only tried it once. It had still turned out pretty good and lasted pretty long, but that might be 'cause I gave it to my mom, and she isn't quite as hyper as Yuffie. Yuffie still looked at hers with a huge amount of glee. I wondered where Jay got the flowers...I'd only seen a few. But then, I hadn't seen Jay most of the day...maybe he went out looking for some.

"OHHH!" Yuffie squeaked and bounced past me. "Jaaaay! It's falling apaaart but I still like it! WEE!"

Jay stopped in his tracks and giggled. "Oh...that's good! Means you're not slowin' down any, huh? Glad ya liked it!"

Yuffie squealed and huggled him. "Ohhh I get it! Heheheeee...you don't care that I made it fall apart with my bouncing?"

"Nahhh I like your bouncing."

I just watched all this with a "...huh?" look on my face, but then I laughed and everyone kept walking on and on, north and north, until just before sunset we got up to the most...beat up...town I'd ever seen. It wasn't really even a town...it was still in the process of being rebuilt. Even though there were alot more shacks than tents now and even some real houses and buildings...there were still plenty of people who still just lived in tents by the old railroad tracks, and there was wood and metal and weird stuff like that scattered everywhere. I looked around at it all while we walked through up toward this station type thing with a shuttle...thing...on a cable. Captain talked to the guy who was standing by it and we all got shoved on. We barely had time to get the chocobos in before it started moving. I clung to the nearest person, who happened to be the doctor. I got shoved off and landed on Cait Sith.

"Ow...off, Sephi!" Cait Sith laughed. I sat up.

"This is weiiiiird!" I said in awe. Reno grinned.

"Isn't it cool though?"

"Yeah," I agreed, scooting back so I was between them and felt more secure. The thing we were in hummed along up the cable. Jay was bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement.

"Duuude we're finally goin' to the Saucer again! It's been like, YEARS!" he looked like he might jump up and down. His friend patted him on the head like a dog. Jay laughed and ran a hand through his standy uppy hair and grinned sheepishly.

"Right, I get it. 'Calm down, you're embarrassing me', right?"

Jay's friend paused, then started laughing. Everybody looked kind of startled and then laughed too. Jay looked pleased that he'd brought a reaction like that out of his half-brother. I mean, his friend had been less quiet than usual, but he hadn't laughed like that since our first funny riding lessons back at the farm. It made me grin, and alot of everybody else too. Then the thing we were in screeched a little and stopped, and the door opened and there were all these weird carnival-y kind of sounds, which I didn't know were carnival-y because I'd never been to anything like a carnival or theme park before. But it was a little overwhelming at first. This one lady asked us for tickets and the Captain showed her the lifetime pass he'd bought. Jay nudged me.

"Took us nearly a year of all of us beating up monsters to get enough money for that pass. Man that was a tough time, and me n' him were only about as old as ya when it happened!"

"You mean...you've been working to get a Gold Chocobo for that long?" I sweatdropped.

"Yeah man, and longer! Since we were like, eight or nine I think! It'll all pay off soon though, so it doesn't seem like that long now." He scratched his head. I felt really impressed and really dismayed at the same time. Since they were eight or nine? That was probably like...seven years. Maybe a little less or more, I wasn't exactly sure how old they were back then. The idea of finding the rest of the Fluffs from Round Island seemed pretty hopeless now, but I tried not to get too sad about it. I mean, I was here to work toward getting my Island back. Since that was all I could do I had to focus!

It was really hard to focus with all that fun noise and lights and stuff going on around me, though. We wandered around, went through lifts and jumped in weird tube things that took us to different parts...it all was one big happy blur until we got to the scary graveyard place and then to the spooky mansion hotel thing.

"This is where we're staying?" I meeped, hiding behind Cait Sith and blinking at the scary person at the counter.

"Looks like it," mumbled Reno. "Hehehe. Funny place." He poked a huge rubber spider stuck on the wall.

"Ewwww don't do that Reno!" Yuffie squeaked. Reno snickered and picked up a smaller spider from the floor and threw it at Yuffie, who screeched and ran over to Jay, who giggled and patted her while she clung to him. The doctor rolled his eyes and kicked the spider back at Reno, who eeped once and then laughed to recover from the embarrassment of being scared by his own prank. The Captain went "Quiet!" and we all froze while he talked to the guy at the counter about our rooms. Then we all went upstairs and got shown where we were sleeping and given our key card things. Then Jay's friend grabbed my arm and steered me and Jay outside to where the chocobos were waiting, put Charky and Winner's reins into our hands and led us over to the Racing area. I stared around at other racers coming out of the place while Jay's friend talked to the girl at the door. The girl shook her head a couple times, then nodded slowly. Jay's friend came back looking kind of annoyed but not to the point where he wouldn't talk. Just a little.

"Alright, looks like the track's not free till midnight, so have fun until then." He took the Charky and Winner and Jay grabbed me and dragged me off saying something about roller coasters and snowboarding and battle square. I wiggled and protested and laughed and poked Jay in the side, tried alot of things to get him to let go, but they weren't really much, I was really curious after all. So he dragged me over to the rollercoaster first. That was a fun experience! Scary...but fun. I did scream. Like, alot. But I had fun anyway. Jay was actually able to pry my hands off the bars too! So by the time we got off I was actually having fun, not just being scared to death. I was scared to death and having fun at the same time!

Then we headed over to the game place, Jay skipping and me walking with shaky legs and laughing nervously. I lost really bad at that one fighting game, lost really bad at the snowboarding and motorcycle games...the only thing I did okay at was the mog game. Jay had a great time beating me at everything, and I had fun even though I lost alot and spent most of the money I'd got off monsters, that hadn't already been spent helping pay for the boat ride between Junon and Costa Del Sol. Then Jay dragged me to battle square and I ended up only lasting for one round because I was still shaky from the rollercoaster. Jay was in there for quite a while, and I had to wait out in the main area, glancing around nervously at all the scary people coming through. When he finally came out and got his prize items I stuck close to him until we were in a safer-feeling kinda place. We went on the rollercoaster one more time and then I felt pretty wiped out so I asked if we could go back to the hotel. Jay seemed a little disappointed but decided it was okay.

"Maybe Yuffie'll wanna do something! You should go get some rest anyway, right? I got a feelin' he's gonna push us pretty hard tonight."

I blinked and shrugged. "Okay."

So we headed back to the hotel and I went into the room I was sharing with my family, and Jay followed me in and held out a little chocobo plushie he'd won somewhere to Yuffie.

Yuffie's eyes got bigger than a chocobo's egg. "For MEEEEE?" she squeaked.

Jay nearly rolled but managed to restrain himself to a grin. "Yep! You wanna come help me win some more?"

"YAAAY!" Yuffie pounced on him, then suddenly froze. "...it's okay that I'm not a human right? They won't like, not let me play because I'm a Fluff?"

"Aw heck no! They get way weirder people around here than you, trust me," Jay rolled. Yuffie beamed.

"Okay! YAY! LET'S GO!" She bounced off Jay and ran out the door. Reno rolled his eyes.

"That's pathetic..." he snickered after Jay and her had left. Cait Sith laughed.

"Oh, and you weren't? Saying you liked spinach..." he stopped when he saw Reno's look and realized what he'd just said.

I shivered at the weird tension. What? It had been so funny just a second ago! Cait Sith watched Reno carefully. Reno sighed and laid his head down on his paws.

"Yeah...pretty pathetic wasn't it..." he mumbled.

"Sorry, Reno..." Cait Sith said quietly.

"Whatever," Reno sighed and slunk away under the bed where we couldn't see him. A second later he backed out with fur all prickled, and sneezing.

"Holy chocobos...! Don't they ever check to see what their guests leave under the beds!" he choked. We laughed and he laughed. I guess we were glad because the sneezing distracted us from thoughts of Floofers and other dark things. We rolled all over each other for a little while, and then Cait Sith stopped and chucked.

"What was it, Reno?"

He sat up and sneezed again, then laughed and shook the dust out of his fur. "I'm not sure I wanna know! It looked like some...rotting food...it smelled REALLY bad!"

Cait Sith snuck over and peeked under the bed, then backed out in a hurry.

"Whoaaaa that...whoa. I think...it might have been a pizza...? But who would leave a whole pizza under a bed? That's just gross!"

"I have nooo idea," I laughed.

**Ah, it is SO amusing to see you following the same paths as my Cloud puppet. I hadn't thought of it, but of course he'd leave something strange like that in all the important places he's visited. He always was rather fond of Midgar.**

Midgar...? What does that have to do with rotting pizzas...?

**If only you knew... Hahaha...**

...well now I feel left out. But anyway...after that we curled up on the bed or on the floor and fell asleep. I felt like I'd only been asleep for five seconds when Jay's friend shook me and I jumped out of bed all sleepy-like. He dragged me and a tired but happy-looking Jay out of the hotel. We passed a very cheerful but kind of dazed-looking Yuffie on the way. She waved happily at Jay and me and then twirled around once and sprang up the stairs like a slinky going backwards. Then we were back at the track and I was up on Winner, who looked tired too. Charky wasn't tired of course. It seemed like that bird never slept. So we got up on the chocobos and then Jay tried to get us more awake by slapping us on the back or the arm randomly while we walked around in circles, and talking to us about how we had to be ready in a month for the races. We just nodded, but after a while we did become more alert. Finally, we were pretty much as ready as we were going to get that night after a whole day of traveling. So Jay's friend nodded at me.

"Jay knows his strategy well enough, I want you to practice you and Winner's. Let her press to get ahead of Charky, but not too hard. You should at least not let him get out of sight. And then keep her back until the very end."

The race track was indoors, so it was a little weird. There were weird lights and pictures all along the way, and the floor underneath was kind of smooth and weird like glass or something. I wondered if the chocobos would slip, but they seemed pretty sure-footed. Jay grinned at me. I blinked back and then managed a grin. Jay's friend pulled out his PHS and put it on the timer again, then nodded.

"Ready..."

I tightened my hold on the reins and shifted so I'd be more comfortable and be able to stay on better.

"GO!"

We both shot off like taking-off rockets and ran past all the weird lights and pictures...Winner and Charky didn't seem to mind them much at all. Charky ran like a Fluff with a swarm of Floofers behind it, just like he always did, but Winner managed to keep up pretty well even though she couldn't manage to get ahead because I pulled her back a little to save her energy. She obediently stayed just behind Charky, and Jay pulled him back just a little right in the middle. Then Jay grinned at me.

"It's the very last! Just around this turn and then a straight run to the finish line!"

I nodded and urged Winner on. "GO GO WINNER!" I yelled. She ran as fast as she could, stretching her neck straight out in front and gaining on Charky fast. But Jay let him loose too, just as we were coming around the bend. You couldn't even see their legs anymore, it was just a blur, and I could barely see 'cause we were going so fast. Winner really wanted to get ahead, and she managed to stick right at Charky's side straight through the finish line. Jay jumped up in the air and ran over to us looking pleased.

"That was perfect. If we can run the race like that, we should have no problem, at least with the first few."

"Hey man, I just thought of something!" Jay panted excitedly. His friend blinked at him.

"What?"

"It's just that Winner's the most competitive when she's runnin' against her guy. Y'know, Charky!"

Jay's friend frowned. "...so?"

"So she'll climb to S class faster if she and Charky are in the same races, but that means we'd have to hold off getting Charky to S for a little while longer!"

"I see..." He looked like he was thinking. "Hmm...unless you still ran Charky in additional races to the ones with Winner."

"But man...that'd be almost like racing two races at once!" Jay sweatdropped.

His friend shrugged. "Or we could wait. It's up to you. I think you could do it, and it would save alot of time."

Jay blinked and thought. "Yeah...you're right. It would! I'll do it!"

His half brother nodded. "I thought so."

I sure felt tired, so I was really glad when Jay's friend decided that was good enough for the first night and we should get sleep so we'd be able to do better tomorrow. So we all wandered back to the hotel and I fell into bed and was asleep in a few seconds. Thank goodness for big hotels and comfy beds, even if they DO have rotting pizzas under them.


End file.
